


Collide

by Townycod13



Category: South Park
Genre: F/F, M/M, back by popular demand: vampire kyle, but a jerk this time, i got /way/ too invested in making this work, seriously weird AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-08
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-05-19 17:56:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 50,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14878553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Townycod13/pseuds/Townycod13
Summary: Request from tumblr





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fic beta'd by Panaceaa the fabulous! I highly recommend giving her fics a looksee owo

[art by Seve (southparkt.tumblr.com)](https://southparkt.tumblr.com)

 

A gentle breeze brushed the treetops of the quiet mountain down, accompanied by the shadow of daylight’s last glimmer.

It’s a short shadow at this time in the evening. A simple one behind a simple plant, swayed in the winds of early autumn. Soon, the last of daylight will drain away and soon the tiny plant will say goodbye to the sunlight it needs for survival.

A gentle town with small people that all hold small dreams. Some of them are tucking away young ones for the evening, some of them are just departing for an evening out. The sweetness that only a brisk mountain air can offer lost on them while the expanse of stars above is underappreciated.

They don’t know nor think about how lucky they are to have the sky or the wind, after all, to them it is only normal. They were born here, raised here, and many would die here.

So many would die.

They didn’t think to say goodbye to the sun either. It is like the wind and the stars, a mere sphere of light in the sky that offers warmth.

A plant cannot feel dread. It cannot feel horror. It cannot feel apprehension.

Still, it was perhaps the only thing in the entire mountain town that felt the loss in any significant way.

Photosynthesis is how it survives and when the sun makes its grand exit across the night sky, its means of existing is lost to the wind carrying whispers.

The whispers are soft, a caress of the air rather than a true sound, the whispers are insidious, crawling on the flesh of those that can hear and moving onto the next prey to pursue.

It is well past the time when the plant has mourned, in it’s nonsensical way, the loss of the sun that the first scream cuts through the air.

By sheer chance it is close enough to feel the warm liquid spill across its leaves.

It is a strange sort of confusion for a plant, feeling liquid and finding it isn’t the life sustaining clear substance it uses to live.

The confusion was short lived though, the dead weight of a corpse crushing the life out of it in the moments that followed.

* * *

In any sort of emergency, there are stages.

Initial panic, a chaotic explosion of human emotion that spread across the mind in a terrifying impression of an infectious virus.

Attempted reform, those that would solve and fix rushing to aid, their success entirely determining the lives won or lost.

Acceptance, the new status quo is created. For better or for worse, the humans have adjusted to their new circumstances in an attempt to hop and skip one inch ahead of the razor sharp scythe of death.

Kenny’s circumstances were strange.

He died in the initial panic stage. Among the crowds of screaming senseless fear he had found the only two people that he couldn’t tolerate losing.

And in the seconds that followed felt the life drained out of him while his siblings watched on in horror, screaming noiselessly for them to run and hide.

Kenny was an odd sort though. Not even a few hours later he was alive again and attempting to find the lives that meant the world to him all over again.

In the initial panic stage, Kenny died no less than four times. A cascade of blood and pain and within it was the constant and undiluted fear of loss.

His own loss was inconsequential. He had people to protect.

By the time people were attempting to remedy the situation, the cascade of blood had washed over the small mountain town. The corpses outnumbered the living and the cause of the horrific scene was a smirk on the horizon.

The sun, people reasoned, was the answer.

Because not once in the past week had the sun risen.

The horizon offered nothing but the unrelenting pressure of moonlight, dancing on the skin and whispering the promise of death.

Kenny entered acceptance faster than the crowds.

Adjusted to his circumstances and wrapped poison around his throat.

In the piles of corpses there was a cage of the living.

Kept like cattle. Kenny let out a long and not at all calming breath.

One week of bloodshed slowed down. One week of searching and praying.

One week and the cage of people was the last possible place his lost siblings could possibly be. He checked every corpse and every afterlife.

The wind picked up. He clenched the baseball to his chest while he leaned against the tree.

He was alone in this. He didn’t know who else was alive. If anyone had escaped. Anyone that was alive was hiding or captured.

The lights in city hall taunted him, the body of the diseased mayor hanging outside like a decoration. A warning.

They were still hunting everyone down, probably, but the initial damage had been done. The creatures crashed in without any warning and _took_.

Another breath.

His previous four deaths still weighed heavily on him. A painful departure from the world like no other, one that he would prefer not to repeat if at all possible.

There were certain advantages to being born and raised in such a small town. He knew his way in and out of almost every single building in town. There was a crawl space just to the side of the city hall and if he crawled for ten feet there were loose floorboards he could pop out of.

The problems with this plan were apparent. Previously those floorboards led to a rarely used meeting room. Who knew which rooms the creatures inside were using. He could enter just to die.

No use hesitating, he reminded himself, painful as it was he would come back in just a few hours.

He’d done all he could to prepare. He just needed to keep all his possessions and time it all perfectly. No pressure.

He broke into a low run for the side of the building. He could swear he heard a chuckle on the wind as he passed the trees that had concealed his presence. How long would the trees last without the sun?

It didn’t matter.

He was a short-term goals kind of guy.

The crawl-space smelled the same as he remembered, much smaller now. He was just about to begin the trudge through mud when he felt the familiar brush of something unearthly on his skin.

He clenched his bat but didn’t swing, not yet, waiting for the chuckle on the wind to materialize. _There_ , the creature was real now and its teeth followed his taunt.

A band of cloth around his throat was a fake declaration of safety. If the week had taught him anything it was that these creatures _lived_ to rip away illusions of safety. It would tear through the cloth just to make a point.

It had barely even punctured his skin before it reared back with a screech of pain. Kenny grinned and whirled his bat around, smacking the creature soundly in the skull.

Only two of his deaths this week had been purposeless. The other two he’d spent finding something that _hurt_ them.

Smoke issued from its teeth and wide brown eyes stared at him in shocked horror. It wasn’t expecting Kenny’s throat to _hurt_ it.

He didn’t hesitate and brought the bat down again. And again. And again.

The creature was a bloody mess of death but Kenny figured now wasn’t the time to see if they were the sort to stay dead. He was on a mission and others might come after hearing the shrill cry it had released. He ducked under the building just before the whispers on the wind gathered behind him. They would find the corpse but not him.

It could serve as an excellent distraction he reflected, trying to solve a murder rather than guarding the cattle.

It was a tight squeeze but he’d never crawled faster in his life, the mud mixed with the blood and his heart throbbed in terror.

Five feet, a cry behind him, angry and alarmed.

Seven feet, the sounds of a choked sob.

Ten feet, Kenny didn’t wait to hear next. If there were creatures in the meeting room, surprise was the only real weapon he had.

He tried to burst upwards but the resistance told him there was something above him. He had no leverage. His breath ran short. He needed to lift the weight. What if the city had fixed the floorboards? What if he died curled under the building in this tight indefensible position?

He pushed.

Up. He had to go up. Panic flooded his ears but he still made out the barely sounds of surprise above but he _pushed_.

Up. Go. _Up!_

Something snapped and Kenny felt the momentary release of freedom, the temporary bout of claustrophobia releasing for just a second of peace.

Before he took in shocked green eyes of a creature. Kenny felt eyes on his back too and ducked just in time to avoid another one, backing to where he knew there to be a wall.

The creature in front of him looked from the floorboards to him but Kenny didn’t give it more time and swung his bat at full force.

Another creature caught it but Kenny decided that wasn’t important. A quick scan of the room showed there were prisoners, only two surprised creatures. He released the bat instantly, sending the second one stumbling at the sudden loss.

They were stronger, faster, and could be noncorporeal, he reminded himself, and his little neck trick would only work on one of them once.

He had a vile of rat poison in his pocket but he wanted to save it for when he’d gotten to his siblings. If nothing else, give it to them as a means to defend themselves.

The creatures finally caught up, mouths curling into unpleasant little smirks but Kenny knew at least two more things that they didn’t.

“Well, seems we have a--”

Ah, monologuing, Kenny adored it in villains.

He rushed forward, body low and snapped upwards with a silver knife towards the one that had taken his bat. It would have worked but something blurred and the other one had him from behind.

He could curse but he didn’t.

“Huh… you seem oddly familiar,” it mused, holding his arms back with a laugh on its lips.

“Just have one of those faces.” Kenny sniped in return.

Both creatures froze, a new tension entering the room that Kenny wasn’t familiar with.

The one with his bat, vaguely feminine but ultimately a monster, straightened itself to look him over. “You can talk,” it said simply, like that was something to marvel at.

Kenny’s nerves were already frayed entirely. He didn’t have long before others came and if the one behind him decided to go for the throat he would have precious little time to respond. And very few options for weapons.

“Okay, for real? You assholes have never paused long-enough in your crazy killing sprees to listen to someone say hi? You guys are rude as fuck, just saying.”

It didn’t make sense though. He realized that they should have heard someone, anyone, say something before. A cry for help or a scream for mercy. They had humans as their prisoners right now, so unless they were already dead, they should have heard them at least.

The grip behind him tightened and Kenny wondered if his arm would break under the pressure. He vowed mentally to beat the blood-sucking freak to death with his own arm if that happened.

It was a good a blunt object as anything.

“Are you not one of them?” It mused, sniffing the air, “You smell like them.”

Breath tickled his throat and he calculated the distance between himself and the door. If the one holding him were to release him in surprise, he might be able to use the shock to wriggle the bat out of the other’s hands.

He tensed, prepared, when the feminine one held up a hand.

“Wait. Put it in with the others.” Kenny couldn’t help the way he breathed easier, the fear that he was too late having throbbed through his entire being, “We should see why it can speak,”

The breath on his neck departed and he assumed there was a nonverbal exchange because ‘she’ nodded and began to walk out of the room, tossing his bat to the side carelessly.

The one holding him followed, pushing him along forcefully.

This was fine. Kenny reminded himself that it would be easier to be brought to the holding area than it would be to search the entire building for it. He could confirm, once and for all, whether or not his siblings lived and whether there was any sense in continuing these suicidal rescue missions.

The feminine one in charge wandered away but he continued to be led meaningfully through the halls.

A murmur behind him caught his attention though.

“....Didn’t I eat you?”

It was so low that it clearly wasn’t meant for his ears but Kenny noted it. Whoever was pushing him down the corridor he owed a rather painful death to.

He wondered if these things could remember killing him? Was there something in their monstrous DNA that made them immune to his usual memory numbing departures to the land of the damned or did this asshole just think all blonds looked alike?

They made it to the mayor’s office and as Kenny was shoved roughly inside he turned to see the face of his captor one more time. Memorize it in order to kick his ass at a later date.

Green eyes, this time slitted with calculation, watched him cruelly before closing the door. Kenny flipped off the door.

“Kenny!”

Any anxiety and fear he had been experiencing dissipated and doubled at the sound of the voice.

“You’re alive!”

The second voice chiming in just about made his heart leap into his throat and he couldn’t resist the tears that escaped as he turned.

There. Among the survivors. Seemingly uninjured. It was too much to hope for. Kenny ran forward just as his siblings did, holding them in a desperate hug.

He choked back a sob, “Karen.” he breathed the name, “Kevin,” he could have sobbed.

He didn’t have time for that though.

He took in the rest of the faces present and turned to his shaking older brother, “How many are here?”

Kevin shrugged, “There’s around eleven of us I think? They took someone away yesterday,” he looked down, shame coating his features.

Kenny shook his head, “That’s fine. Don't’ focus on that. One thing at a time.”

The older generation would be harder to deal with. He could see Randy Marsh and Mr. Garrison among the prisoners. Never the obedient sort.

There were even some troublesome faces among the younger crowds. Some of the goth kids present would normally rather slit their own throat than listen to someone else. Kenny’s heart sank that he didn’t see the rest of the Marsh family. He’d been fairly close to Stan.

Grieve later. Save family now.

“How often do they take people?” He made sure to keep his tone low and directed solely at his siblings. Best to look like just a family reunion at the moment.

“Yesterday was the first time.” Karen chimed in, looking shaken.

Kenny nodded.

He knew he could probably just barely get his siblings out safely with a plan that included the sacrifice of his own life, but the rest of the crowd would complicate matters.

The pain in Kevin’s voice told him that his brother probably wouldn't be okay leaving the others for dead though. Karen definitely wouldn’t be.

He wouldn’t be able to explain that it would risk their lives further to risk a full-scale escape right now. People like Randy Marsh would make too much noise and ultimately serve as a sacrifice for the others.

He didn’t quite want to get his friend’s dad killed in a botched rescue.

He thought about the strangeness that happened in the meeting room, “Hey, quick question, can they understand you?”

Both his siblings were blank, Kevin spoke first, “The… things? No, they speak some weird garbled language. I don’t think they know English.”

Okay.

Kenny put that problem to the side for now. He could potentially even use this knowledge to his advantage.

“Do they have anyone guarding you in here?”

“No… but, the last person that went out…”

Kenny nodded, understanding. There was no need to guard the flock of humans when they were easy to catch. Like herding kittens. That you ate? God, these bastards were evil.

“Look, they’re probably going to come for me,” Karen’s grip on him doubled and he felt his heart cry at the desperation of it, “Don’t worry. I have a plan.”

“What is it?” Kevin couldn’t just let him be.

“I’ll explain later but… if they come for you, splash this on them.” He gave them both a vile of his only current weapon.

“...I don’t think holy water is going to…” Karen began delicately.

Kenny giggled a little, “Yeah, this is rat poison. Burns their flesh apparently.”

“...How in god’s name did you figure that out?”

By dying really painfully, Kenny’s mind supplied. He shrugged instead, “It was a coincidence.”

The door opened and Kenny stiffened, turning to use his body to block his siblings from sight.

It was a tall dark-haired creature with a stoic face. He observed the crowd, face narrowing in on Kenny before he nodded to himself and closed the door.

“What was that?” Karen breathed.

 _An identification._ Kenny bit his lip. What he was being identified with was a bigger problem. It set a very distinct deadline.

Lowly, he turned and whispered to his siblings, “Only use it they’re about to bite you. It’s not enough to kill them. Only enough to get time to run.”

What did he know about the mayor’s office?

He knew there was a stuffed bear.

The hunting prize still stood proudly in the corner of the room, widely unnoticed by the huddled citizens.

He knew there was a big desk.

It sat just in front of the window that used to give the mayor a view of her town.

He knew there were flags and curtains.

They were lifelessly hung around the edges of the tense room.

He knew it was on the second floor of the building.

Below is the hard concrete of main entrance, a drop that your average citizen wouldn’t walk away from without injuries.

He knew the mayor bloodless corpse hung just outside, body secured to the flag pole attached to building. The pole was secure enough to hold her full weight without bending. It could probably hold a bit more weight.

He knew the vampirish motherfuckers were probably busy discussing the one he’d killed and his ability to ‘speak’.

Well.

Now or never.

“Get all the cloth in the room and tie it together. Flags. Curtains. Now.”

“Wh--”

“ _Now_.” He didn’t like using such a cutting command with his siblings but he had no choice.

“What are you guys doing?” Ah, Mr. Marsh. Kenny took a deep breath.

“We’re getting out of here. You can stay here or help. If you stay you’re more likely to live longer in the short-term but less likely to live in the long term. Choice is yours. If you want to help, help me move the bear.”

One of the few good qualities of Randy Marsh was his susceptibility to inspiring-type speeches. He was moving without thinking, another adult assisting as well. Mr. Garrison was voicing his predictable complaints but Kenny tuned him out.

“We got the cloth, Kenny.” Karen informed, out of breath. Apparently one of the goth children had helped her out.

“Tie it securely to the desk.” Kenny busied himself with positioning the bear just beside the window. “Tie the other end to the bear.”

“This plan is never going to work.” Mr. Garrison complained, now the only one not working.

“As soon as you hit the ground, head for the trees. There’s an old bomb shelter--”

“The one that’s never locked?”

Kenny nodded, “Get there. Lock it. Do not wait for me.”

“Is there even food in there?” Mr. Garrison sneered.

“Yes,” Kenny acknowledged him for the first time, “I put it there.”

And without further adieu, he instructed the men to help him smash the window open with the bear, sending it cascading to ground below.

“Go, go, go!”

Most people didn’t need telling twice. They slid down the cloth to the soft bear below and made a mad dash for the trees.

He didn’t breathe as he saw his siblings go down.

Everyone went down but he would stay up.

This was the tricky part.

The creatures were going to come to the sound of the glass breaking in the mayor’s office before the bear now decorating the front steps of city hall, but they were still going to investigate the ground below. The distraction in the office would be too short for them to reach the trees. Kenny just had to extend it.

So long as they got to the trees.

Something burst into the room at the same time that Kenny saw Kevin’s head disappear under a tree.

He jumped forward, grabbing onto the mayor’s leg and hanging just out of reach.

Then, he pushed the detonator.

He didn’t look to see his work. He knew the burning liquid he’d set to sprinkle from the trees was working from the shrieking hisses he could hear.

Good.

With any luck the bastards would be too shocked over the pain to pursue. He knew one or two of the prisoners were unlikely to make it but his siblings should. The viles gave them an unfair advantage.

Green eyes stared at him in shock at the ransacked room. He smiled.

Not thirty minutes prior this creature had thrown him into this room thinking nothing could come of it. Underestimated because he lacked the supernatural strength of his opponent.

“What are you?”

More gathered in the room, distracted by his hanging state. Questions took to the air. _Where were the others? How was one of them floating outside the window? Someone grab it!_

Kenny decided it was a good time for his final distraction

Among the little idiosyncrasies he’d noticed about the stupid monsters in his unpleasant interactions, it was an attraction to sound.

Deep breath.

He could scream but that wasn’t his style. When projecting one’s voice to the height of its capacity, it’s best to do what you do best.

He pulled down the handkerchief over his mouth and sang.

Loud. Booming. The voice he knew could fill an auditorium with the echoes of his sound.

It had the desired effect. More vampire-punks gathered to him. He could the whispers of the ones below, no longer interested in the forest but instead in his hanging form.

It happened quickly. His would-be jailer caught on and rushed forward, a blur of movement and a clawed reach that almost grazed him.

Kenny kicked the extended hand, flying backwards and to the concrete below, he would miss the safety of the bear by a margin.

But he wasn’t going to die in their hands again.

And, as he descended with those shocked greens locked on him he allowed his voice one last verse of distracting sound.

Sung to the deep and uncompromisingly powerful tune of the hallelujah chorus, he died telling a hoard of vampires to suck his dick.

In retrospect, he really hoped none of them actually took him up on that. It was meant as an insult in the heat of the moment.

That was the fifth time Kenny died that week.

\---

He knocked on the lid to the bomb shelter.

“Karen? Kevin? Are you in there?”

His heart hammered at the prospective that he’d failed. He’d done all he could to prepare but there were so many unpredictable variables. If they locked themselves in and kept quiet, the shower of rat poison and distraction should have given them enough time to hold out until he revived.

 _Should_.

He was painfully aware that people were terrible and unpredictable.

“Kenny?” The sound of his sister’s voice was a bigger relief than he realized. His entire body sagged and he barely managed to move an inch as the lid was carefully opened and he was pulled down into the cramped space below.

He stared in absolute wonderment at the faces. They were all there. All eleven of the prisoners. His siblings hugged him tight but he couldn’t help but weep helplessly at the sight of the others.

There was a very conscious decision made on his part to prioritize some lives over others. He’d prepared himself to live with it. To accept that he valued the life of his sister over the life of the small goth child younger than even her. To move on with his life knowing that he had caused others to die because of his own selfishness.

He wasn’t prepared for them to all live.

It was such a shock he couldn’t breathe past his own sobs.

“Well, what are we going to do _now_?”

Mr. Garrison had a special way of destroying moments. Guiltily, he half wished the selfish man had been caught in the escape.

He cleared his throat, now somewhat embarrassed over his breakdown. He did have some plans for after the initial escape but most of them involved just himself and his siblings. He wasn't keen on involving more parties. Even his original plan of waiting in this bunker for a few days was less realistic now that he had so many people. The food he’d managed to raid for their sustenance wouldn’t last more than two or three days with this crowd. Probably even less considering the idiots.

“I need to find my family!” Mr. Marsh declared, not looking at all like he wanted to do anything to that degree. A mixture of cowardice and foolish bravery.

A girl around his own age raised her hand, he struggled for her name but drew a blank. “I think we’d be better off in smaller groups. They notice noises, the more of us there are, the more likely they are to find us.”

He agreed. He debated the pros and cons of vocalizing his agreement but he was suddenly the center of scrutiny.

Mr. Garrison was glaring at him, “How did you survive?”

“I hid,” he admitted, albeit leaving out the part of it being ‘in the afterlife’.

“What if you’re one of them.”

Oh god, this is exactly why he didn’t want to be in the situation with this man. A few of the more squeamish in the group were responding to the accusation.

Staying here was a sure loss. If they had any drama this close to city hall, they’d be found immediately.

Most of the group was older. He looked to the girl that spoke, “I agree with…” he paused for help.

She rolled her eyes, “Nelly.” she provided.

He nodded. “I agree with Nelly. Small groups are for the best. I’m staying with Kevin and Karen.” guilt gnawed at him and he looked at the small goth boy, he’d seen the kid around before, “Firkle and Nelly are free to join too.”

Kevin opened his mouth to argue but Kenny shot him a pleading look. He was lucky, the older boy wouldn’t argue this. At least not yet;.

“I think two groups of five is about perfect.”

Firkle glared at him, “I’m not going without Pete.”

Kenny rolled his eyes. “Fine. Pete, Firkle, and Nelly. Sound good?” He looked at the assembled adults, some had crowded near the food and Kenny gave up on it. “We’ll scout ahead. The rest of you can wait here until it’s more opportune to get out.”

Nelly frowned at him, but she didn’t argue. The goth’s chorused ‘whatevers’ and the adults relaxed in the knowledge that they wouldn’t have to go back out there.

“But it’s dangerous!”

Again, Mr. Marsh with his false bravery, He tried to smile reassuringly, “I’ll look for Stan while I’m out there.”

It was an out. Please take it.

“I should look for Stan! He’s my son!”

Suddenly Kenny knew exactly why Stan pinched his nose all the time. There was a distinct itch that developed there from agitation over Randy Marsh. It wasn’t that the thought was wrong, it was objectively true that he should protect his son, but the buffoon was almost guaranteed to get them all killed. Kenny had gotten killed because of Mr. Marsh’s mismanaged abilities to adult under _safe_ circumstances. The idea of being responsible for the man-child in a disaster made him shudder.

“My group already has six people, Mr. Marsh. You should work together with your group.”

That should do it. If nothing else, he was team minded. Present an ‘us vs them’ situation and no one was surer to take the bait than Randy.

“Maybe I will!”

Kenny did not sigh in relief but it was a close call. He gestured for his chosen view to gather in a huddle close to the ladder.

“Look, as far as I can tell, most of the vampire-freakos sleep around now. The sun’s not up but it’s about three p.m. right now. It’s our best bet to get out of here and to the next safe haven.” He looked at the uncertain elements of his group anxiously, “You guys can stay if you want.”

The older goth scoffed, “With these conformists? Please. I’d rather get sucked dry.”

Firkle nodded and Nelly made no comment. He felt she would argue if she disagreed.

He knew his siblings and they knew him. He knew how to ask for silence in an emergency, they’d faced more than one in their sordid childhood. And he knew how they would behave under most circumstances. He was risking them all for a few kids he didn’t even know.

But he really didn’t want to leave them in the hands of a buffoon and a narcissist. The others were adults, not ones he knew, but he felt that they were old enough to be able to determine their own fate.

“Okay, then, we’re going to nearest house. I need to replenish supplies. Follow me and when we get above ground, do not say a word. You speak and I _will_ leave you for dead.”

He wished he meant that promise more. Damn. he was too soft-hearted for this shit.

There was general assent though and he let out a breath he hadn’t realize he’d been holding.

“Okay. Let’s go.”

Karen tugged his arm, eyes anxiously at the crowd of adults they were leaving, “Will they be okay?”

He bit his lip, “I hope.”

She nodded.

They had a short span of time to work with. Two more hours and some of the earlier-to-rise freaks would be on the streets, if they weren’t already.

He didn’t have time consider how long it would take for Mr. Garrison’s negativity and Mr. Marsh’s blind optimism to create a divide.

One thing at a time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't initially gonna do this prompt but it just stuck in my brain and then I felt challenged XD and I am nothing if not weak to the challenges.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I GOT FANART AND ITS BEAUTIFUL!!! PLEASE LOOK AT THIS!!!!!! https://southparkt.tumblr.com/post/175069446552/ive-been-thinking-about-townycod13s-collide-fic !!!!!  
> So many thanks to my fantastic beta Panaceaa and the kind Southparkt <3 you guys are fab af

The night was stagnant with death but the moonlight travelled across the city, uncaring of the world it barely protected against the darkness.

It shone in the sky like a constant reminder of the loss the sky still felt. The stars a memorial to the dead littering the streets.

Quiet, so quiet, the world had been taken by whispers and darkness but the moon only lit the sky without shame.

The moon offered no warmth, just glowed against the backdrop of the sky as a chilly breeze took more than breath away from those that remained.

It took hope.

Without the sun in the sky there was a crushing oppression within the people, felt so vividly and with agonizing precision. Finding their weakness and allowing it to glow like the stars.

Among the lost items and bodies in the streets, hope tried to march onward. Like it was slogging through a sea of blood.

Hope had a baseball bat and a bad attitude.

\---

The stench of displeasure shadowed the air with a heavy canopy. It would be a bit much to call the scene distressed, just a distinct air of displeasure.

Arguments brewed like a thick stew, silently and with disdain. Those that knew what they were were talking about intermingled with voices that held no comprehension of the situation as it should stand.

A game of blame was afoot and no one was exempt from the pressure. Building, mounting, and consuming the voices into one message of confused anger.

One tiny snarky creature had snuck in and in a laughably short period of time, out-witted them all. Kyle was sure he would never forget the look of absolute triumph on the humans face before it killed itself in one last act of defiance.

How ridiculous; How stupid. How overzealous.

It had killed someone, not that anyone in this room seemed to care, too busy pointing fingers and protecting their position.

The good news was that the damn thing was dead now. It shouldn’t take long to track down the others, they were easily caught the first time and even easier to keep imprisoned. It was an exercise in futility.

Perhaps that’s what agitated him so much about it. So much wasted energy, and for what? A few minutes spent running around like rats.

Someone died so that one of those insignificant maggots could make some meaningless point in one grand gesture. It really hammered home how foolish, barbaric, and cruel the humans really were.

The arguments swelled on points of decision making, the nonexistent power structures, and decisions that all had agreed upon.

The bigger concern should be whatever substance had rained from the trees. Those that had given chase had gotten a nasty shower in burns. If was a compound that only the dead one knew about. That was fine. But if the rest of the skittering creatures decided to weaponize it…

Kyle tuned out the conversation around him, they had a very specific set of tasks to attend to and it wouldn’t do to have anymore unpleasant surprises. If only they’d managed to capture that stupid little _rat_ alive. They could have questioned him, determined if he was part of a larger organization or working alone. This kind of information was a bit important.

Or maybe it would have been better if Leslie had just let him kill the dumb thing on sight. Problem solved. If there was more to it than just the one insignificant opposition, then it would have shown that their little operations weren’t going to work in a quick and easy show of power.

How had the stupid rat even managed to outsmart them? They’d grown too complacent. Then again, even a brainless rodent could get a lucky shot in.

Leslie always had three schemes ahead of whatever was in front of her. It made her an excellent strategizer but he felt it lacked a certain attention to the here and now. Besides, he wasn’t always confident that her stated plans matched with the ones in her head.

He’d just been asking about just that when the stupid creature had sprung from under the floor, like the rat it was. Cut him off mid-sentence! Absolutely no respect for how _hard_ it was to corner Leslie for a private conversation!

Truthfully, the inability to squish that obnoxious little bug himself was going to bother him for awhile. It was so abhorrent, the way it danced around their capture and smiled as it went. _Taunting_ them. Like it _knew_ something that Kyle didn’t. Which was _dumb_ . These creatures were so ridiculously stupid they didn’t even seem to have _language_!

Though, that one had spoken. It was the most bizarre thing Kyle had ever heard. Some strange sound that reached out and stole recognition in his mind. From one of the humans, no less.

It was ludicrous.

He’d have to look into though. There was a chance the things were in fact capable of some language outside of the nonsensical patternless sounds they normally made. If nothing else, more information could only assist his mission.

“I’d like silence, please.” Leslie’s honey-coated voice cut through the hubbub of arguments and panic, somehow successfully pulling everyone’s senses towards her,. She had a way like that, gently coaxing whatever reaction she wanted from others. Kyle watched on with interest.

She was fascinating. She was a mystery. She always stole his gaze.

“I think,” she began, delicately, when all eyes centered on her smile, “We should first find the source of the burning substance and destroy it. Our safety is at stake.” Her voice bled concern, sincere, heartfelt, worried for her companions, “We can’t let them hurt us anymore.”

Those surrounding her were the first to nod emphatically, but the wave of agreement swept over the room like a hum.

That was the whole purpose of coming to this horrible place, after all. Attack the damn rats in their home and put an end to their senseless cruelty.

Kyle agreed.

Still, his eyes locked on Leslie’s until hers met his. There was something nagging, something important, that tickled the back of his mind every time she spoke.

Love? Perhaps.

Mistrust? Maybe.

Defiance? Strangely, a bit.

She allowed her expression to soften at the sight of his face and it was so genuine and sweet. Soft and enticing. He knew he’d do anything for her, to protect her, to protect his people, to destroy the menace.

He knew but something inside him raged.

“I’m going to look for the ones that escaped,” he said, breaking eye-contact.

Strange how hard it was to focus when he looked into her eyes. She was captivating.

Control. They needed control, genocide was of course a bit too much. Control would be enough. They could teach these barbarians to be better.

And the ones that wouldn’t change? Well, at least they could be used for food.

Control.

The word struck him as he strode from the building, trying to forget the way he felt helpless in the face of her honeyed requests.

She was his world but he knew he’d never be hers.

He redirected his attention to the trees. Ever since the burning liquid had rained, no one had dared to enter. It was possible that the creatures were still hiding in the foliage though.

That didn’t make sense to Kyle though. Inevitably the area would be checked and they had plenty of time to create a significant distance. Though, knowing the stupidity of these creatures, they could just be milling around the forest stupidly, waiting to be escorted back.

Really, it hardly even seemed worth trying to teach them manners.

Kyle hesitated only a moment before entering the forest. If the burning liquid returned, he’d be able to find the source and put an end to that. Nothing happened and Kyle let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

“Golly, Kyle, you’re awfully tense.”

Kyle did _not_ jump out of his skin at the voice. He did however have to stifle a surprised yelp before turning to the ever smiling boy.

“What do you want, Butters?”

Butters hands were clasped behind his back in a decidedly childish posture as he took to walking beside Kyle, “Oh, you know, just out for a walk. The moon is just lovely.”

Kyle tried not to put distance between them. Butters unnerved him, more than most, there was something distinctly sweet and pure about the man.

There was also an underlying cruel mania that could hardly be predicted. A ‘loose canon’ would be doing canons a disservice.

Butters was always happy and positive. Always.

“I’m sure it is.” Kyle said, not bothering to look up.

“Aw, gee, am I bothering you, Kyle?”

Kyle measured his pace, no longer looking about the trees for wild humans. It was suddenly all too clear that they were alone out here.

Alone with Butters. Great.

“No, I’m just trying to find the humans that ran off.”

“Oh!” Butters brightened, “If you’re hungry, there’s a house I found that I heard a few puttering about in. They seemed awfully nervous as I walked by so I thought I’d drop in for a surprise visit later!”

Only Butters. Kyle rolled his eyes, “Yeah, that sounds like them. Either way, we’re _supposed_ to be bringing back any ones we find.”

The accusation either went straight over Butters’ head or he didn’t mind it in the least. Or it would be held against Kyle later. He gave up trying to measure the blond’s mood by expression, it was a lost cause.

“Well, we ought to pay them a visit then!”

“Lead the way.” Kyle gestured, waiting for Butters to do just that.

There was a pause before Butters moved, too blue eyes alight in the moonlight and observing Kyle’s face.

“Something’s bothering ya.”

He hated being read. He glared the other down until Butters began moving again, not a word spoken between them as they walked away from the trees.

He’d search them later.

The dirty little city came into focus under the canopy of stars. It hardly deserved the gentle light the moon graced it with. Practically huts, in Kyle’s opinion, littered the hovel the little rats considered livable.

Each one identical and dull, only the color seemed to show any personality. Such pointless creatures without regard for _taste_. A hive mind of inane and worthless thoughts, showcased even in their architecture.

It wasn’t long before Butters stopped outside of a green two story home, gesturing that this was indeed their destination. Kyle didn’t really need him to though, it was obvious that something was inside.

The skittering little rats could be heard easily enough. Murmuring in their strange non-language behind closed doors like they could be protected in there.

It was laughable. Insulting, even. How had they ever managed to avoid detection for any amount of time?

He didn’t follow Butters as he made his way to the front door, humming a little tune.

“ _Loo loo loo_ , I’ve got some apples,” Butters hummed, raising his hand and knocking gently.

It was comical how the sounds within stuttered to a halt. Kyle could laugh if he wasn’t still so irritated.

“ _Loo loo loo_ , you’ve got some too.” Butters voice was a little larger now, hugging the air with intent.

Something crashed within and clearly that was all the invitation needed for happily humming Butters, without any preamble he pushed open the door.

Kyle rolled his eyes as he heard the feeble locking mechanism shatter under the force. Really, how did these things expect to keep anything out with such weak security? It was a joke.

Huh. Weird that such primitive creatures had any technology at all.

His companion practically glided inside and Kyle followed, a touch more cautiously. If the evening had proven to him anything, it was that these creatures were trickier than originally anticipated.

Or at least the one had been, before its fall.

There were indistinct mutters all around but the only sound that truly hung in the air was Butters gentle hum.

He was taking his time, every small item or tiny movement had the smiling man pausing to take it in.

They paused in a room with a large window, Kyle failed to see the purpose. Even the humans weren’t dim enough to stay in rooms they’d be so visible to the outside. All the same, Butters was taking in everything. He lifted a frame from a shelf.

“They look so sweet.” Butters cued at was probably a photo of some kind. Kyle wasn’t planning to pay it any mind. “Look at this, they’re huddled close.”

“I’ll go upstairs,” Kyle said, bored with Butters’ creepy little games. Who the hell could even read that guy? “Look for the humans,” he pressed, hoping to remind why they were even there. He knew it was futile but that wasn’t the point.

It was the integrity of the thing.

Butters waved a hand flippantly, still cooing over a picture of strangers, “Well, golly Kyle, I would almost say you’re not enjoying yourself with that attitude.”

“I’ll be upstairs.” Kyle finished, eyes heavenward in mock prayer.

There was nothing that could _really_ be done to stop or influence Butters, not since the thing with his parents, and Kyle wasn’t opening that can of crazy.

He’d barely made it the first step before he was ducking out of the way of a surprise attack. The only hint he’d received of the assault was a flickering shadow but he was well enough aware of his surroundings. The chair leg that had only just been aimed at his head clattered to the ground as one of the little humans stared at him with horrified blue eyes.

Kyle rolled his eyes, “Yes, I can dodge. Why is it so surprising to every one of you barbarians?”

This particular human wasn’t done though. He pulled out a knife and, while yelling something incomprehensible in the creepy tongue of the humans, aimed another blow, missing as Kyle easily swept to the side.

This time he _didn’t_ uselessly drop his own weapon but that didn’t matter much. He’d barely finished his second attempted assault before Kyle saw another flickering shadow.

He didn’t get a third chance.

Butters swept behind the boy, cupping his face with a hum. Other hand a firm grip clutching his dark hair.

“Ah gee,” Butters chastised, “You ought not attack my friend Kyle like that. He can be awfully testy.”

The human cried something else, struggling in vain, Kyle turned around to leave Butters to it. Butters could more than handle one of them. There was still the upstairs to investigate and he was almost sure this hovel was hiding more than one vagrant.

If he was lucky some of his escapees would also be making a little rats nest in the attic.

He’d only barely reached the top of the steps when a loud cracking sound from below pulled his attention.

The snack Butters had found was clutching his neck behind a woman who was short on breath but eyes alight with rage, wooden bat held threateningly towards the now floored Butters.

She was yelling something and pushing the boy behind her, some sort of metal device in her mouth gleaming in the dim lighting and somehow highlighting the sounds of her yells.

The bat swung downwards but Butters was wise enough to move out of its path. Again, Kyle would never understand their surprise over the ability to dodge. The woman startled backwards, almost tripping over her own feet before adjusting herself.

“Now, that hurt.” Butters said, “I’m going to be awful sore with you.”

She swung the bat again, this time a warning rather than aimed, backing up as she did and keeping the other human behind her. He was still clutching his bleeding neck in some sort of blank shock.

“Butters, don’t play with your food.” Kyle chastised, deciding that he’d sat in the background long enough, “Either eat or bring them back to the base. Don’t be an asshole.”

After all, they were better than these barbaric simpletons. They didn’t torture, just quick and merciful.

Butters apparently hadn’t got the memo, smiling his little too sweet smile while the panicked humans retreated backwards, swinging the bat here and there to discourage him growing too close.

They backed all the way back into one of the front rooms, the boy tripping on a short table.

“ _Loo loo loo_ ,” Butters sang softly, stopping to allow the boy time to right himself, “I’ve got some apples.”

Blood seeped from between the boys fingers and began to damp his clothes. Kyle clicked his tongue at the wastefulness.

The female whipped the bat at Butters head, only missing by an inch and eyes flickering towards a potential exit.

What foolish creatures, thinking they had the time to escape.

Perhaps that was what Butters had been waiting for because he finally seemed intent on doing his damn job, body straightening as he took hold of the bat swung in mid-air in its next swing.

Whatever Butters might have said or done from there was lost in the sound of glass shattering.

“Stan!” A disturbingly familiar voice cried, “Get down!”

Something liquid was thrown at Butters, causing the other to pull back in pain, but Kyle’s eyes were locked on the human that had come in through the window.

No freaking way.

The bleeding boy returned the words with something garbled. The female swung again and backed against the intruder and towards the open escape route.

“You and Shelly get out of here!” The blond human ordered, tossing a bit more of the burning liquid at Butters now retreating form before his eyes locked on Kyle.

A grin split his face, not a sincere one by miles, shit-eating and full of sarcasm. Kyle hated it.

“Dude!” He said to Kyle, “Hell of a place to see you again!”

Something in the way he said that set alarms in Kyle’s mind. It was teasing him, the same way it had before it released the others.

It stuck out it’s tongue at him and Kyle actually felt himself reel back in offense. The _inputance_.

The woman was already most of the way out the window, ‘Stan’ was tugging at his saviors sleeve urgently.

They definitely understood each other, Kyle realized, how bizarre. He couldn’t tell any pattern or sense in the humans words but the blond one he could understand clear as day. The humans seemed to understand him too.

“You’re not escaping again.” Kyle’s body finally jerked forth but a new smell touched his nose, causing him to hesitate.

Another girl rushed into the room, from where Kyle had no idea, she said something urgently to the other two and ‘Stan’ exclaimed in shock.

“Yeah, dude, that’s why we gotta get the fuck out of here.”

Kyle didn’t need any more hints.

That was the smell of burning.

He collected Butters stunned and burned form and ushered him out of the building, disregarding the humans. He could capture them later. Kill them later.

The last thing he heard before the blast was, “I raded your uncle Jimbo’s place. Dude has _a lot_ of explosives.”

\--

Kyle stirred to the sounds of voices, his ears ringing. He couldn’t have been out more than a moment.

Everything on his body hurt though.

He looked back to the still burning building, barely able to believe how far the blast had thrown him and--

Butters!

He looked about, finding the other standing quite calmly to the side and watching the place burn. There was figure next to him, speaking in gentle low tones. Kyle stood up, an attempt at dignifying himself, and watched the fire pensively.

Leslie, the voice from earlier, stopped talking at Butters to address him.

“What happened in there?”

“It was--” Kyle could hardly make sense of it, “The little rat from before--the one that killed itself. It’s still alive.” Kyle finished in disbelief, “I knew I recognized it! I’m almost positive I killed it at least once before!”

Leslie rubbed her temples, “Kyle, I know it’s hard to tell them apart, but just because they share some features, it doesn’t make them the same.”

She said it so patiently, so sweetly, like she was genuinely trying to help.

Kyle rounded on her, “I can tell them apart just fine!” His frustration was maring his judgment, but he couldn’t stop once he’d started, why didn't she just understand that he was _right_? “Mike said he thought so too!”

“Yes, I’m sure they looked similar _but_ the one from base is dead.” Leslie said patiently, “Dead things don’t just get up and continue walking. Look, it’s been a long night, why don’t you go back and take a break? Let us handle this.”

The throbbing sound of his own rage pounded inside his skull, the sensation of his nails digging into his palm even through his gloves.

He restrained himself.

He knew what he saw. It was that same taunting deep blue that tugged at sight and expressed so much without a single word.

It was the same clear ringing voice.

Hell, it was the same fucking orange jacket.

He’d just need evidence.

For now, making an enemy of Leslie wouldn’t be in his best interest. He nodded tersely, eyes narrowed but he could let this pass. He would let this pass.

She didn’t make any move to stop him as he left. Didn’t spare the mind to even glance his way, already addressing others that had arrived. Bebe winked at him as he walked by and he couldn’t even manage a polite smile in response.

Leslie was already onto new things.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Like he didn’t really matter to her.

Like he was just a tool.

He shook away the treacherous thoughts with a frown, continuing down the dimly lit road and further away from the base camp he should be returning to.

A gentle breeze brought the whispers and promises of freedom so he followed it.

He needed a minute to breathe. Away from oppressive air of control and the bouncing ball of politics that could slip from anyone’s fingers and shatter on the ground without remorse.

His heart knew he was right. It stung with the feeble resentment.

The human town was empty and rundown, Kyle scoffed at the display window in what was probably a store. It was clearly looted and Kyle knew _his_ kind hadn’t been the ones doing it.

These animals stole their own resources like animals.

He continued down the road, letting his feet carry him forward without regard to destination.

So long as he got away from the stench of failure that plumed from the fire slowly entering his periphery. So long as he put a distance between himself and all the negative emotions swirling within.

This wasn’t his fault.

He knew he was right.

It was the creepy undead humans fault.

And _that little shit_ had stuck out his tongue before _blowing up someones house_.

“What an asshole.” Kyle kicked a fallen piece of debris from who even knows what. Where had he even wandered?

He scrunched his nose in distaste.The entire place smelled like garbage. The moonlight dancing on little piles of trash informed him that this was indeed the case. He took a quick glance at where he’d come from.

The roads until this point were less disgusting. Still littered with the fallen and the dead, but otherwise not this decrepit. A simple line of metal and wood divided the clean from the dirty.

Kyle let his sight linger on the line. It was like the thin division between his world and this one. Easy to cross but different in every conceivable way.

These creatures didn’t have to start this. If they hadn’t crossed over Kyle wouldn’t even have to _be_ here, much less dealing with stupid undead rats that didn’t know the meaning of the word respect.

Kyle tore his eyes away from the tracks and pressed on. Perhaps he was crossing into a new realm.

Did it matter? Not really.

It’s not like Lesie would even miss him.

The ground was disgusting to look at but it was better than the sea of stars above, mocking him, pushing him.

The stars were free in the sky. They didn’t have his responsibilities. They didn’t have the pressure.

Don’t ask so many questions, Kyle.

Don’t be so negative, Kyle.

Learn to have fun, Kyle.

A cluttered stack of garbage jingled and Kyle’s eyes shot upwards at the sound.

The pair of startled brown eyes that met him was as frozen as he was. She was small, probably weak, and clad in an obnoxiously orange and tattered parka.

It was the orange that tipped him off.

His lips curled into a smile. Things were starting to turn around after all, she was one of the escapees. He was sure of it. Perhaps one that knew about the _asshole_ that had tried to _blow him up_.

Shaky hands reached to her hip where a knife was holstered. Kyle rolled his eyes heavenward and asked the sky why these creatures even tried.

Clearly they weren’t able to keep up with him.

He decided to take a page from Butters’ book, work slow, get the answers he needed via fear. They might not be capable of speech but he was just _sure_ he could get the rat to point out where the other one had gone.

And _then_ he could show the bastard he meant business. Kyle’s smirk grew. The one benefit of this entire debacle was certainly now he would have the chance to _personally_ snap that neck in half.

That was going to be so satisfying.

But first, information.

He stepped forward lazily and she stumbled back, crying something garbled while she held up the knife.

Laughable. Small. Weak.

How had these maggots ever managed to cause so much trouble in his realm? It hardly made sense.

His mind flew to the one he was really hunting and he conceded that perhaps some of them were capable.

He took another step forward but an eruption of garbage rained down on him. Something slimy slid down his cheek and a foul smelling object exploded on his head.

He stared in stunned horror as a larger human practically scooped up the girl and started running in the direction of a shack.

“You have got to be kidding me.” Kyle gagged, pulling away pieces of trash from his now stained shirt, “I knew they were barbarians but _trash_?”

Okay, now it was personal. First, kill the tall one that had tried to bury him an avalanche of trash, then use the girl for information.

And maybe see if that shack had running water. There was no way he was showing up at base smelling like a dump.

He took a step forward and then stopped, mind taking in the surroundings.

This was home ground. For whatever reason these stupid rats had _chosen_ to hide here. Normally he had no faith in the intelligence of humans but blond one had outwitted him far too many times.

If there wasn’t a booby trap of some kind awaiting him on route to the house he’d eat his own shoe.

But where?

He looked cautiously around the trash for mechanisms that might trigger a rain of the burning liquid.

If he left for reinforcements the creatures could have also retreated to a new stronghold.

If he was immobilized by pain they could take his head.

He paced, his only vague education of the sorts of weapons this world had lending no assistance.

He’d gotten them by surprise. This was his best chance.

“Alright.” He spoke to himself above all else, eyes narrowing at the shack and began to walk cautiously, careful to avoid standing too close to a tree. “Let’s see what you little maggots have planned.”

His heart thudded against his ribcage but he didn’t allow it to dictate his decision. He might be dancing with death but he was a notoriously terrible dancer.

Death would be the one with sore toes in the morning.

He made it within spitting distance of the tiny building before anything happened. He’d been ready to run at any time, the smoke that still billowed from across town a reminder that these barbarians were not above blowing up their own homes in an attempt fight back.

Not that this shack passed for a home, Kyle scoffed.

In time with his sneer, an explosion of burning hit his chest, he stumbled backwards in shock, looking for where it could have come from.

Another explosion of liquid hit to his right and left behind only a clear liquid and some colorful bits of rubber.

“What the--?” Kyle only barely dodged another one, rushing for cover inside the shack. He instantly regretted it, the knife from earlier aimed squarely at his stomach was only barely blocked at the cost of impaling his own hand, “Son of a bitch!”

The girl said something urgently, putting distance between them and Kyle heard the sound of another weapon. He wasn’t about to wait to find out which. He reached out and grabbed the girl by the wrist, pulling her squarely in front of him.

A part of him didn’t expect this to work. They had no loyalties. They were no less than wild dogs attacking randomly.

All the same the assault ended and he was able to regain focus.

The girl was trembling in his arms--not girl, it was a human, why did he keep needing to remind himself?

She said something to the human holding a metal pipe of some kind. Desperate, short, a command?

The man shook his head with grim determination and Kyle felt oddly like the villain.

What the fuck.

He tightened his grip on the human, it wouldn’t make any sense if these creatures have actual emotions and language. None of it made sense. He hated this shitty world.

He hated every little obnoxious and terrible thing that had occurred since his arrival.

“Hold still.” he commanded, knowing she wasn’t capable of listening. Should he just kill them both and put an end to this? It was giving him a headache.

She shivered forward and he should have expected it but he was still entirely unprepared for when she reared backwards and slammed her head into his still burning chest.

“Son of--” he tightened his grip, ready to break the wrist in retaliation. She screamed but the door behind him imploded open.

“Did you just fucking touch my baby sister?!” A bat flew out of nowhere and slammed him square in the face, sending him flying back and loosening his grip on her wrist.

Kyle tried to breathe through the shock and pain.

The repeated and continued failures of today had only one consistent source. He snarled at the blond that had come in swinging.

Literally.

“ _You_!”

He grinned, cocky as anything, “ _Me_.” he confirmed, rearing his nail infested bat for another round. Kyle stumbled out of the way, and watched as others swarmed into the room.

He was out-numbered, injured, and outmatched.

Shit. He should have grabbed backup.

“Kevin! Get Karen out of here and check for injuries! Nelly brought back some supplies from Stan’s.” the piercing blue of his eyes never once left Kyle’s, still holding his bat as a threat and ready for others.

He was the leader. Kyle was confident of that. Giving orders while leading an assault. Kyle could almost respect the bastard if he wasn’t _so pissed off_.

Kyle collected himself. He looked like shit, he smelled like garbage, his hand was bleeding, and this piece of _shit_ thought he had him in the bag.

Not in this fucking lifetime.

Kyle surged forth, catching the bat mid swing and clamping his good hand around the creatures neck, slamming him into a wall and giving it a squeeze for good measure. As predicted the little worker ants all ceased to watch in terror.

Get the leader, get them all. Kyle smirked down, barely concealed rage causing his lip to twitch unpleasantly.

“How are you still alive?”

For the first time since he’d met the wiley human, it’s eyes widened in true surprise, “Oh, shit, you guys remember that?”

Kyle’s eyes furrowed, “Why _wouldn’t_ I remember that?”

The boy shrugged but flinched as Kyle increased the pressure. Breathing should be a real challenge right now.

“Run.” The command wasn’t for Kyle, it was rasped and directed at the frozen spectators.

All at once they sprang to life

The man from before burst forward, slamming something against Kyle’s head while some of the others showed little hesitation about slipping into the back.

“Kevin--” the human choked out, “Go.”

Kyle reached with his still bleeding hand to grab ‘Kevin’ but was met with air. The little girl was tugging him away, eyes still locked on the scene.

The blond human inclined just a tip of his chin and Kyle slammed his head back.

“Think I’ve had just enough of your fun little orders.”

“What are you,” the boy gasped out with a sneer. “The fun police?”

The girl with the baseball bat from the exploded house suddenly appeared, tugging ‘Kevin’s’ other arm away as well.

Kyle shouldn’t have let himself get distracted by the scene.

He nearly went cross eyed with the sudden pain in his abdomen as the full weight of the blond boy’s apparently considerable leg strength slammed forward. Kyle stumbled back, releasing the throat and coughing in pain.

Blue eyes shot at the those that hadn’t retreated yet, while he retrieved his bat, coughing and swaying, “Go _now_ , Kevin! You have to protect Karen!”

‘Kevin’ let himself be dragged away finally but Kyle hardly felt like that would be for long.

If he didn’t know better he would say the creature was protective. That was weird though.

The blond one straightened himself and rested the bat on his shoulder with grin.

“Just you and me now, red.”

Kyle’s nose scrunched, “I _have_ a name.”

The creature rolled his eyes, “So do I, asshole, doesn’t mean a lot right now though.”

Kyle tried not to let his surprise show. Obviously they had names, this one had been calling them names like ‘Stan’ and ‘Kevin’ but…

That just didn’t fit into the narrative as he understood it.

He needed more information.

Kyle tested the stage, edging towards the exit the others had retreated through.

Blue eyes pierced his as a orange clad arm extended with the bat, “Try it, motherfucker.”

A smile split his face. Protective.

It might not make sense and it might be irrational but at the very least it could be used. One on one, Kyle was sure he could overpower this stupid rat.

But the rat wasn’t entirely stupid and again, he remembered this was home base. For all he knew the game was to keep him distracted long enough to blow the place like the last one.

He clearly didn’t have a reason to fear death.

Kyle made a feint for the door, the movement coaxing an expected burst of speed from his opponent. The bat swung but Kyle ducked underneath and around, relishing in the surprise the human felt now that Kyle had his back.

The wrapping about the neck still mocked him and Kyle scoffed, time to teach this idiot that cloth did nothing to stop teeth--

The pain was sudden and intense. No sooner had his teeth touched the cloth that he felt as though they might burn out of his skull.

He backed away, mostly out of surprised pain but barely avoided the swing that would have gotten his head.

The human was still jeering at him, swinging again and again without giving Kyle a minute to recover.

“Like what you taste, asshole?”

Kyle removed his bleeding hand from his throbbing mouth, using it to grab the bat again and not even bothering to avoid the nails. His hand was fucked up anyway.

He didn’t speak, it was too painful but he wrenched the bat away. This didn’t cause any pause from the blond, who let go of the bat and instead just rammed the full force of his body against Kyle’s still burning chest.

He gasped out in pain, words momentarily lost, and the boy twisted around to send an elbow to his ribs.

 _Enough_.

The parts of his body that had been burning moved forward in one, the sudden unexpected pain driving him forward and grabbing the boys hair as leverage to throw him across the room.

He hit the wall with such a dull thud that Kyle was almost inclined to think he overdid it and accidentally killed his source of information.

There was a groan though and Kyle took that to mean there was still life there.

He was immobile but Kyle still chose to step on his head. It was a statement. It was the pain. It was a declaration.

“You piece of shit.”

The voice was muffled by his boot but Kyle still heard it clear as day. Still full of sass and defiance. Like this was a fucking game.

“Eat me.”

Kyle stomped the head before bending down to lift up the boy by his hair.

“Maybe I will.” he promised, pain in his ribs still singing the song of revenge.

The shame of Leslie’s disbelief and dismissal still burning his thoughts.

The frustration at the unknown still taking his patience.

His new informat wasn’t going to respond though. Kyle sighed, breathing, but definitely not conscious.

That was well enough, transporting him would be easier without him running his mouth.

His eyes darted towards the door the others had used to escape one last time. He could easily follow the others, they’d be easy to corale now.

He heaved the unconscious boy over his shoulder, it would be best if he stopped testing his luck for now.

Besides, he got the feeling all the information he needed was right here.

If he could get the sassy asshole to behave. It

That was fine though, worst case he just picked up a snack.

That was a positive way of looking at it. He could really use more positivity sometimes. What was it his father kept repeating, over and over like a drone, have some fun Kyle, don’t ask so many questions Kyle, stop being so negative Kyle…

He could pick a phrase. He wasn’t going to.

A plan in mind and the current bane of his existence slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, Kyle departed the dirty and disgusting shack.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the delay in this chapter XD it gotten written and edited awhile ago but through a series of events I wasnt able to upload it until now XD however, i regret nothing as the con was very fun :D

There aren’t really answers left to find in a world with so many questions. Dancing across the horizon and taunting those that might seek them out. Laughing in the face of the truth.

Truth, the subjective concept under much scrutiny, is left to stare at its own reflection.

A world trapped in darkness and another burning in light. The moon illuminates streets coated in blood and the sun a road of broken bodies.

Two reflective realities at war with the concept of peace, the delicate balance that maintained their meaning lost with each life shattered across the cobbles.

In need of what was lost, throwing blame at what remains.

Truth is a foreign concept lost in the process. Misdirection and miscommunication are the tools of those that tossed it away.

\----

Chains.

Actual chains.

Kenny hoped they enjoyed being a cliche because at this point, that’s what they were. A goddamn cliche. Capes, dramatics, and chains.

He’d make a joke about it being kinky but he didn’t even have anyone to work against. He was in a basement alone with  _ chains _ . Okay, yeah, he wasn’t getting over that anytime soon. Chains. Just...rope was way easier to gain access to, set up, and carry. Who in their right mind would resort to the dramatics of  _ chains _ ?

Kenny looked up to the ceiling where the metal was hanging from and noted that of course,  _ of course _ , they’d taken the fucking time to hammer it in. It was ridiculous, in a weird way, he could only imagine some dumb vampire asshole going out of his way to raid a Home Depot, then in its overly dramatic clothes, setting up this entire worthless contraption.

Unless of course these chains were already here ahead of time. Kenny scrunched his nose at the thought but he knew his neighbors in town well enough to know that was a distinct possibility.

Horror struck him, knowing his luck he was stuck in Mr. Garrison’s sex dungeon.  _ Gross. _

It wasn’t  _ actually _ guaranteed that Mr. Garrison had a sex dungeon…it was just extremely unlikely that he didn’t.

Kenny tried very hard not to think about where these chains had probably been. Kinky sex dungeons? That he could get behind.  _ Mr. Garrison’s _ kinky sex dungeon? He’d like to take the easy way out and just die now.

He couldn’t bite off his tongue though. Stupid vampires had thought to gag him. What absolute jerks.

The door at the top of the stairs opened and Kenny had to blink his eyes away from the light that spilled in through it. The momentary squint didn’t allow him to take a good look at his new guest.

He resented his gag all over again. There were  _ so many _ terrible jokes he could make about being left tied up in a sex dungeon. It actually pained him to be limited in this way. Actual pain.

He settled for a suggestive eye waggle at the--

\--Oh. This asshole again. Fucking  _ great _ .

Kenny knew his frown wasn’t visible but he still hoped the intensity of it got through to Danger Redhead aka: The anti-fun brigade.

The blood-sucker seemed to share his sentiments though and sneered in response.

“You’re going to provide answers now, human.”

Kenny, in full sass-mode now, repeated what the vampire had said word-for-word into his gag.

It had the desired response. A confused and frustrated look, and of course, the removal of the offending cloth.

Kenny wasted no time. He was actually bursting.

“Hey, how about get my wrists too. You’re  _ bound _ to enjoy it.” Kenny wiggled his eyebrows again, “I know I’m a cheap date, but most people buy me coffee before tying me up.”

“Wha--”

Kenny wasn’t going to let this go to waste, “Speechless? I have that effect on people, I’d love to help you out but I’m in a bit of a _ bind _ .”

“I’m not speechless, I just...” the vampire attempted to defend himself, but the pause while he searched for sense inside of the rapidfire hell that Kenny was hellbent on creating was more than enough for Kenny to cut in again.

“It’s the atmosphere in here, isn’t it? It’s enough to make you  _ gag _ . We should take this somewhere with better _ lighting _ . Unless you’re planning to skip the foreplay and  _ suck _ me off right here and now?”

“Just give me  _ answers _ , human!” The voice boomed, clearly opting for intimidation but Kenny just upped the wattage on his shit-eating grin.

“Afraid I don’t have any, I actually was hoping you could show me the  _ ropes _ ,” Kenny’s chains rattled and he glared at his captor as though this was the first and worst offense of all, “Chains.  _ Chains _ , dude. You ruined my streak because of these fucking chains.”

“I think I hate you.”

“Feelings mutual, ass-nugget. You’re a real pain in the neck.”

The vampire put the gag back, disgust on his face.

“Kinky.” Kenny managed to get in just before his mouth was covered again.

“You’re  _ foul _ !” The creature accused, somehow under the opinion that Kenny gave a fuck what it thought, “Have you no  _ decency _ ?”

Kenny had a word or two about decency with consideration to the creature, ya know, murdering half the town in cold blood. Also locking him up with  _ chains _ .

Yep. He was never getting over the melodrama of actual chains. Just  _ wow _ .

As the gag allowed him none of his desired verbality, he opted to shrug the best his chained position could allow.

The vampire was rubbing his temples as if to calm his nerves and Kenny cheered a little at that. The sooner he got the dumb thing to kill him out of frustration, the sooner he was home free to go back to protecting his family and friends.

Silence overtook the space and Kenny awaited the verdict. He had a few more foul puns lined up and at least one suggestive gesture he was pretty sure he could pull off even in his current straits. He’d have to wait for the thing to actually look up but he was a patient person at heart.

Waiting was apparently the wrong move however. For whatever peace the silence had allowed his opponent was enough for him to regather his composure.

Kenny realized he should have rattled the chains obnoxiously, what a lost opportunity. Now he knew the value of the cold metal, it was the potential annoying noises. For  _ shame _ that he didn’t come to the conclusion sooner.

He watched as the vampire stood a bit taller, chest puffed up like a damn bird, and an eerily calm expression.

“You’re trying to rile me up.” The tone was collected but Kenny could still spot a sprinkle of indignation within it, perhaps rattling the chains could still get under his skin, “It won’t work.”

Among the littiny of rude gestures that Kenny had at his disposal and the few ways he was debating using morse code to insult his captor using the jingling chains, Kenny opted for a cocky and simple wink.

Clearly it wasn’t appreciated, the creature curled his fingers around Kenny’s throat in a way that was now becoming familiar. He resented the gag again, he would very much like to comment on the guy’s kinks.

The guy made an amatuear mistake though, he was putting his face within spitting distance. Probably thought the sight of his creepy ass eyes would work towards intimidation.

“It wouldn’t be any effort for me to snap your neck, are you sure you want to keep this up?”

Kenny, smiling through his gag, blew out his nose as hard as possible. Absolute satisfaction achieved when a gross little booger actually landed on the creeps face.

He wasn’t sure what he was expecting from the action, maybe to have his neck snapped right then and there, maybe rear back in disgust, what he got was the blankest most horrified face he had ever witnessed in his life.

“Did you…” The beast started, voice shaken as though his world had just been shattered. Oh my god, he had a germaphobe vampire. This was better than christmas, “...really… just...”

He trailed off, numbly reaching towards his cheek to wipe away the offending slimy gunk and pausing before touching it, clearly not wanting to further taint himself with the offending content.

The poor guy really looked like he needed a moment of silence to gather himself. You know, get his bearings, reset and reassert himself as the one in control. Poor dude.

Kenny decided now was the best time to start rattling the chains above his head. The sound alone was boring so he attempted to rattle them to the tune of jingle bells.

The grip on his neck increased and a less hesitant hand angrily wiped the booger from his cheek, “Do you think this is a joke? Or are you too stupid to have any concept of your situation?”

The best response, of course, was to blow more valuable air out of his nose. There wasn’t really any more gunk to be sent flying but the stilted flinch it earned him was entirely worth it.

“You’re a fool.” Kenny shrugged and gave a particularly saucy wink while mumbling something dirty against his speech impairing item clogging his airways.

Wow, he was starting to get a bit light-headed. Suffocation might happen before either of them intended at this rate. At the very least he might lose consciousness at this rate.

Perhaps his captor realized this as well because the iron grip loosened and the vampire created some distance with a thoughtful frown.

“Why are you the only one that is able to speak?”

Without even the hint of sarcasm in his expression, Kenny pretended to say something profound into the gag. He was rewarded with a frustrated and hesitant removal of the gag.

“Again. Now.” The asshole commanded.

“Hey, I answered once. Not my fault if you couldn’t understand.” Kenny worked his jaw a little, it was just a bit strenuous having something constantly lock his mouth open. “I’m not the one with a hard-on for bondage.”

“This isn’t a sex thing!” The creature threw up his hands in frustration, “It’s just a means of keeping you immobile because you keep  _ doing _ shit!”

“Are we  _ sure _ it’s not a sex thing?” Kenny raised his eyebrow as far as it would going, wishing dearly that he had one of those amazingly quirked brows that said more than words could, “I mean, who just has a sex dungeon? Sexual deviants, that’s who.”

“This isn’t a sex dungeon!” the voice was honestly offended, Kenny wondered if he had an attachment to this particular dank basement or if he was just that offended over the accusation. “It’s just a basement with restraints. Not everything is somehow sexual!”

“Okay, but,  _ chains _ ?” Kenny rattled them for affect, “I  _ might _ believe you weren't a kinky motherfucker if it wasn’t for the chains dude. Dead give away, dude.”

“Do you want me to gag you again?” He threatened, raising the offending cloth.

Kenny rolled his eyes, “I mean if you’re too scared of the truth-bombs I’m dropping, go nuts.”

“I’m not scared of you.” Frustration edged into what could have been a calm statement, “You’re just an insignificant barbarian,” he huffed, actually turning up his nose like some prissy little princess. “Wretched, stupid, and meaninglessly cruel.”

“Ouch, you kiss your mum with that mouth? Or do vampires even have moms? I’m legit curious now, do you guys just spring out of the ground like daisies, or what?”

“Of course we have mothers!” He snapped, eyes narrowed into hateful little slits. Kenny cocked his head cheerfully at the response. Clearly mothers were a sore spot.

“Oh, so your mom taught you to be rude, is that it?” Kenny needled, watching as the creature’s expression shifted darkly.

“No.” There was something empty and cold in the words. Not like any of the earlier attempts at calm. He’d struck more than a nerve. “She taught me to be strong.”

In another circumstance, one where Kenny  _ aimed _ to avoid a painful death, he would have back-peddled. Parents were supposed to be off the table.

But it wasn’t just the knowledge that he had to get himself killed that pushed him forward.

Red hair pooled in blood.

He wasn’t going to think about that yet.

Kenny clenched his jaw into a forced smile.

He couldn’t afford to think about that yet.

Unseeing eyes echoing a frozen scream.

“Could have fooled me.” Kenny persisted, “Seems to me she raised a bitch-ass wuss without a brain.”

The creature moved fast, too fast, Kenny’s eyes didn’t follow the motion but his head felt like it could be ripped off from the grip pulling hair. Hot breath grazed his neck and a cold voice resounded in the room.

“You want me to kill you.”

Kenny swallowed thickly, the memory of his last few deaths via draining still fresh on his mind. A snapped neck or suffocation would very much be preferred.

“What makes you say that?” he knew his voice sounded strained but he kept going, “I could just be keeping shit real by laying out the truth for you.”

The sharp feel of his captors teeth graced his neck, not puncturing but threatening. “Take back what you said.”

An eerily silent house, empty of the yells that usually issued forth, moonlight providing no answers. The sickening sound of death with the smell of quiet.

Kenny’s lip curled into a snarl with all the thoughts he refused to have until later.

“What, you got a thing for your mom or something?” Kenny forced out a laugh, “You’re not missing out on much, believe me I’ve had much better.”

Teeth pierced the sensitive skin of his neck, bringing with it the hurricane of pain that the bite always inspires.

Maybe there was some type of venom. Maybe it’s just his neurons firing insanely out of panic.

One way or another, the sensation that tore through his being left him too numb to do anything, unable to even gasp for breath or make a sound. The dark image of a shitty basement in front of him blurred momentarily, replaced by spots of agony across his eyesight

He’d almost adjusted, come down from the sudden pain when a deep rumble resounded from the creature and phase two of the painful event commenced.

Accompanied by the horrific wet sound of  _ drinking _ the offending monster began to suck.

For the first time since waking up he struggled against his bonds in earnest, the combination of his blood draining, this  _ asshole’s _ satisfaction, and the pain ricochetting through his body making common sense wane.

His voice finally dislodged from wherever it had hidden.

“ _ Stop _ \--”

To his surprise, the pain did recede momentarily as the teeth unclamped, warm breath still burning the puncture wounds.

“Are you ready to behave?” The voice was still icey but there was an edge of smug decorating the details.

Ah. Hell. No.

Every sensory nerve in his body cried to agree, to submit, to end this before it hurt more.

His ego, anger, and growing hatred on the other hand?

“Bite me.” Kenny was pretty proud of that retort. Mocking  _ and _ punny. He should get award. If Jimmy is still alive somewhere, he should ask for one.

The creature growled, clearly not appreciating Kenny’s humor as much as he did. Well too fucking bad, asshole.

The literal bloodsucker reattached himself like the fucking leach he was. Kenny was at least to some extent prepared for the next tidal wave of pain. Teeth grinding into his flesh while the bastard has his fill.

_ I hope I taste like rat poison _ .

There was one meaningful drink, taunting, making a statement, before finally the creature drew away to lock eyes with Kenny, blood dribbling down his chin.

“Any more and you could die,” he mocked. “And then where would I get my answers?”

Kenny felt his fingernails digging into his palms before he acknowledged he’d clenched his fist, he made an attempt to release the tension.

Don’t show weakness.

Don’t give an inch.

Don’t think about the bad things until you have time to rest.

“You. Suck.” Kenny responded, letting the frustration fully wash over his enemies face.

“Fine.” The vampire clipped, turning around like a petulant child denied his candy, “Enjoy solitude.”

He swept away, dramatic exit somewhat hampered by the shoddy stairs he had to climb to get out of the basement.

Kenny stuck out his tongue at the retreating figure. The blood loss, pain, and stress weren’t really giving him much else.

His arms ached. His shoulder cried out. His legs were tired. Hanging from chains wasn’t just impractical and dramatic, it also just plain sucked. Little parts of his body were starting to ache in response and Kenny needed a break.

He couldn’t close his eyes without seeing things he’d rather set aside. Things he needed to set aside so he could focus on not losing any more.

He couldn’t but at the same time he was so tired.

He allowed himself to doze, half hoping the puncture wound in his neck was enough to drain him to death.

\--

_ Noiseless footsteps and the taunting shadow of the moon across the endless scape. _

_ At the end they’re waiting, waiting, he’ll be too late-- _

_ His feet are soundless, weightless, and taken into the sludge below. _

_ The echo of what must have been screams pulls at his every sense but he won’t make it in time. _

_ He won’t make it in time. _

_ Her red hair soaked in that foul liquid, the carpet eating away at her empty eyes and hands reaching for the mutilated form of her husband. _

_ Run. He has to run faster. He can’t move. _

_ Echoing and calling. _

_ Not yet. _

_ There’s so much that hasn’t been said, hasn’t been done. _

_ He tested his voice but nothing would come. Nothing coming and everything fading off into the darkness that crawled across the sphere that was once home. _

_ Home. _

_ They’re waiting for him. _

_ He forces out a scream, jerking it from his reluctant throat to reach them. _

_ It triggered a full bodied jolt that shattered him. _

\--

“What were you dreaming about?”

Well, he didn’t wake up with a gag. Could this be called progress?

Kenny let the now familiar voice pull him into consciousness. Strange that he’d only talked to or seen one of the creatures.

Speaking of, the grand leech himself was seated on the stairs, somehow still poised in the dank basement, eyes fixed on Kenny’s own.

They really were impossibly green. It spoke to how inhuman the creature really was. Kenny tried to check up on movement in his limbs. His fingers were numb and resting.

“Well?” The vampire pressed, as patiently as the guy probably could manage.

Kenny strained to recall the question.

Ah.

Dreams.

“Dunno.” He tried to shrug, it didn’t go over well, and reminded him just of the dried blood caked onto his aching neck.

“Sounded stressful.” Green eyes flickered to the dried blood as well, “You struggled.”

Kenny pursed his lips before answering, “I’m a stressed person. I can’t account for every cause.”

“You called for your mother.”

The fatigue from earlier faded in the wake of anger and Kenny had to physically bite his tongue from the slew of weakness ready to burst forth.

There was no sense showing this monster where he was weak, he just had to get out of here quickly, not give it weapons against him.

Apparently his pause for calm was too long or to visible, because the vampire pressed on, “Did something happen to her?”

“Did something--” Kenny stared in complete disbelief, brain not quite managing to comprehend the foolish statement, “Yeah. You could say that.”

“What happened?”

Kenny previously hated this guy, just on principle. Now? Now this was personal.

“What do you think?” These weren’t things he wanted to think about yet, he had to get through this and then grieve, one thing at a time, prioritize the important emotions and goals--the emotions overwhelmed him. “I’m completely serious, blood-sucker. What do you think, you murdering monster? What could have possibly happened to my parents, you damned mountain of walking garbage?”

His biting remarks were met with a thoughtful silence as the creature watched from its spot.

Kenny took advantage of the silence to catch his breath. Putting emotion into his voice was dumb on a multitude of levels, starting from the now dull throb of his fresh wounds to the knowledge that anything he said could be used against him.

Finally, it spoke, “This doesn’t make sense.”

It sounded actually puzzled. Like Kenny told him the sky was actually pink and he was half believing it.

Not that Kenny had even a sliver of sympathy left for the guy.

“What part?” Kenny sniped, “The part where you have a vore-kink or the part where you have me hung up in a sex dungeon?”

He’d expected the return to sexual innuendos to bring back the agitation from earlier. Something about this creature actually  _ thinking _ things through struck him as dangerous. It was unnerving to be watched like he was a puzzle that could be solved.

“I--we were told you don’t have family units.”

The absurdity of the statement momentarily threw Kenny for a loop.

“Wait, what?”

“Or a language for that matter.”

The words were pensive, hanging in the air like that they weren’t actually meant to reach Kenny’s ears. An internal contemplation aloud.

Kenny failed to see how any of this was profound.

“So? Your intel was shitty. Tough shit, asshole.”

It’s not like the lost information gave them any real disadvantage. They were still mowing down the population effortlessly.

“The others, the ones you called Kevin and--” he searched his memory a moment, “Karen. They’re also your family?”

There was something about the way he said this that made Kenny want to carve out his tongue and laugh in his mute face. This creature shouldn’t be allowed to say their names.

It was the tone. The tone was clinical, dissecting, distant, but it was also the knowledge of what this beast had done. Would continue to do.

Kenny shifted gears. He’d been aiming for escape up until this moment. This thing wanted information from him and was weak to same pretty basic manipulation. The tables could be turned.

Kenny could be the one getting information and chopping off a head.

His displeased and murderous silence was enough of a reply apparently, because the thing nodded.

“My name’s Kyle.”

Kenny snapped.

“No.”

“What?” He finally was taken aback. Kenny snarled.

“You don’t  _ get _ to have a name. You don’t get to be a person. You’re scum. From the inside out, a twisted and rotted monster.”

“You don’t know me,” it defended.

Kenny laughed derisively.

“Do I need to?” He cocked his head the side, showcasing the fresh injuries on his neck, “Does this look like something  _ person _ does? You seemed awfully attached to your mother,” something flashed in ‘Kyle’s’ eyes, but he ignored it, “How would you feel I hung her up in a basement and bled her dry? Would you be inclined to call me a person? Let me have a name?”

“I--”

“You  _ nothing _ . This shit is pretty simple.” He leaned forward as much as his binds would allow, “What excuse could you possibly have? Any of you? What could  _ possibly _ justify this?”

He was met with silence. None of the earlier fire, thoughtful and collected and unmoving.

“I need more information.” It said, as though that was a proper response, “I think you should consider asking more questions as well. I don’t think you’re aware of as much as you think.”

Oh, this asshole wanted to call him ignorant? Kenny clicked his tongue.

“What makes you think any of your information is correct?” Kenny returned, “As you said, you were told a bunch of bullshit already. How do you know it isn’t  _ all _ bullshit?”

“I don’t,” it admitted. “But neither do you.”

“Yeah? I think I have  _ plenty _ of evidence on my end.” Kenny glared. “How about the mountain of corpses littering the streets? How about whoever’s house this was before you repurposed it to be your kink layer? How about how you tried to kill me on more than one occasion?”

“You’ve returned the favor often enough.” It complained. It was a feeble defense against the litany of allegations.

“Hey, I never claimed to be all sunshine and rainbows but I hardly think self-defense counts.”

The creature stood, a huffy motion more reminiscent of a child than a terrifying monster, paused, and sat back down with a long sigh.

“What’s your name?”

“Yo, ass-muncher, you just told me you didn’t think we had a language and now you’re asking my name?”

‘Kyle’ frowned, “We’ve already established that piece of information was clearly misguided. Stop being so difficult.”

“Stop hanging me from a ceiling.” Kenny countered.

“Maybe I will if you just give me something to work with.”

Kenny bit back his desired response. Something rude that would cut away communication and devolve the room into bickering. It was tempting, very tempting, but it wouldn’t get him anywhere. And his entire body ached.

Also, if he got this thing to trust him enough to take him down, he might be able to manage to turn the tables yet.

“Kenny.”

“Nice to meet you, Kenny.”

Kenny gaped at him openy, “Is it? Is it really? Is  _ this _ ,” he did his best to gesture with his limited motion, causing the chains to jingle, “nice?”

“I was just being polite.” It sounded a touch defensive. Maybe even embarrassed. Had he not realized he’d said it?

It was annoying to admit but Kenny felt he had to be honest with himself. Under a different circumstance, he might have found this uptight bastard to be amusing.

“I think the purpose of manners went out the door when you bit me.” Kenny said, “Which  _ hurts _ , by the way. Do you guys shoot venom from your teeth or something? Seriously.”

Kyl--the creature looked puzzled, “I don’t...I have no idea.” He said honestly.

“Don’t normally talk to your food?”

“...No, not normally.” He looked uncomfortable admitting it.

“Ever thought about how actually gross it is that you literally tried to eat me. Like, dude,  _ sick _ . I mean, do you normally eat things that look like almost exactly the same species sans some exaggerated features? It’s weird, I’m just saying.”

“...I hadn’t previously thought about that, no.” His face curled in disgust at the thought. This guy was a bit too easy to lead, Kenny wondered where the earlier eerie intelligence went to.

“I still look delicious though, don’t I?”

Kyle choked visibly. He’d been so obviously in the middle of some serious internal debate that Kenny’s blunt words caught him unawares.

“I wouldn’t say...you make it sound weird.”

Kenny rolled his eyes, “What part of it  _ isn’t _ weird?”

“Just…could you be quiet for a second? I need to think.”

“What’s in it for me?”

“What?” Kyle’s attention locked on Kenny’s face, Kenny raised an eyebrow.

“You want me to consider you a person with a name, instead of the monstrous creep I know you are, but all you’ve done is demand without offering much of anything in return. You said you might let me down if I told you my name but you’ve made no effort to do so. So, if i’m quiet and let you think, what are you going to do for me?”

“...You’re surprisingly shrewd.”

“Do you  _ know _ how many expired coupons I’ve had to argue about over the years?”

“I don’t know what that means.” He admitted honestly but stood up.

Wow. Was he really this easy to manipulate?

As if in response to his thought, Kyle stopped halfway on his way over, “You’re weak right now. If you try anything, it won’t be a problem to string you back up.”

“Charming.” Kenny drawled.

The quip didn’t deter the motion though and there was a vampire in his personal space all over again, reaching up to unlock little doodads out Kenny’s field of vision.

What was in his field of vision was an actual ascot. He wouldn’t even know what the stupid piece of clothes was called if Karen didn’t incorporate them for some of her earlier clothes designs.

Who dressed this guy? Or any of the vampires for that matter, they all looked like some terrible victorian punk mix that would look utterly ridiculous if most people survived long enough to comment.

Something jangled above and one of Kenny’s arms dropped limply, the sudden freedom sapping away what little strength was left in it. Wow, did his arm hurt. He was going to need to maybe die just to get his body back to 100%. This felt like some serious damage may have been done.

Luckily the momentum of his arms descent didn’t send him toppling to the ground on his pretty wasted legs. Instead the pressure fell on the remaining arm and the surprisingly warm body of the enemy.

“Are you okay?”

Kenny felt a flush of embarrassment, he’d allowed himself to lean on this creep, he tried to stabilize himself but found it was easier said than done.

“I’m fine,” he muttered into the stupid ascot.

Luckily Kyle didn’t comment and just resumed his earlier task, finally releasing the other arm and it would be completely accurate to say that the full force of Kenny’s weight fell forward.

“You sure?”

Kenny bit the inside of his cheek in frustration, “You try hanging from there for god knows how long with blood loss and some asshole trying out a suffocation kink on you, see how it goes over.”

He was testing out his wobbly legs, just barely gaining his bearings before he was lifted just an inch from the ground. Panic ate at him that he was going back up and his previously motionless arms shot forward to cling to whatever was in reach.

It was the cloth of the weirdo’s vest. And part of his cape. Kenny shut his eyes and mentally counted the ways he wanted this to end.

All of them included not being here anymore, his body not hurting anymore, and never seeing Kyle the Stupid Vampire again.

“Hold up,” Kyle’s voice was  _ almost _ soft. It was unnatural. Kenny frowned into the ascot but allowed himself to be carried to a corner behind his previous position. The floor wasn’t comfortable but he was grateful to have a corner to lean against instead of an enemy.

Kyle didn’t immediately move away after setting him down. A careful deliberation glowing in his eyes as he stared. Kenny returned the gaze evenly. He’d agreed to be silent in this exchange and it wouldn’t do him much good to break his word so early in.

“How old are you, Kenny?”

He really didn’t like this guy using his name like they were buddy-buddy. Treating a prisoner with  _ some _ decency after hours of shittery and days of murder did not make them buddies.

It was a relatively harmless question though. There wasn’t really anything that could be gained or lost by answering.

“Nineteen,” he answered simply.

“Hm.” Kyle looked contemplative, “Humans age weird.”

“How do you know vampires aren’t the ones that age weird?”

Kyle blinked, “Excuse me, what?”

“You age weird?”

“No, what did you call me?” Kyle’s nose scrunched, “That’s not what we’re called.”

“You’re a bit of a bitch about details, aren’t you?” Kenny commented mildly.

Kyle bristled, “I don’t see anything wrong with making sure you have the correct information.”

Kenny held in a retort about earlier failures to retrieve accurate information. It was sure to fire the not-vampire up and he was… exhausted. The current exchange wasn’t pleasant and it wasn’t with a person he liked, but it was the first conversation he’d had since this entire debacle began that wasn’t barking commands or negotiating for something.

It could have been nice if he didn’t hate Kyle so much.

Shit. He’d started thinking like the creature had a name. Shit. Humanizing it was dangerous.

“You’re being quiet.” Kyle pointed out.

“That was the agreement, wasn’t it? I keep my trap shut and stop making you feel guilty for being a giant asshole and you, in exchange, stop hurting me for like five minutes.”

That was more biting than intended. Kenny couldn’t help it. His body ached and he was ready to fight just about anyone at the moment. Just, maybe after his body had healed a bit.

“That was the agreement.” Kyle said, tone a touch cold.

The following silence was uncomfortable and stubborn. It reeked of an inability to back down.

The petulant frown wasn’t helping matters either.

Kenny raised an eyebrow, judgement etched in the gesture, “Did you  _ want _ me to talk?”

“No.” Kyle answered immediately, “It’s just weird to see you compliant.”

“Amazing what a nice guy I can be when people aren’t trying to kill, trap, or torture me.” Kenny remarked dryly.

A gloved hand raked through impossible curls as Kyle digested that, “You’re not going to let that go, are you?”

“Most people don’t.”

It was strange.

There was barely a distance between them but almost no animosity. Just a crouched vampire and a slumped human but no one was doing anything terrible to the other.

Kenny spent a very serious moment wondering why the hell the stupid creatures hadn’t just opted for something like this instead of coming in slinging death after death as though there wasn’t enough time in the endless night to get to them all.

He probably wouldn’t dislike the one in front of him quite as much, under those circumstances.

There was a sound in the distance and Kyle stiffened, standing up suddenly and breaking the tentative peace, “I have to go.”

Both eyes move in unison to the discarded restraints, Kenny felt his belly flip at the thought.

He hated pain.

He didn’t fear death. Just pain. Slow deaths, torture, extended periods of agony, he felt his heart drop at the prospect of being reattached.

Maybe he could just hold his breath until he died? Not possible, he’d lose consciousness and his body would breathe without his consent.

Maybe some of the desperation showed in his face because Kyle turned away, without a word walking back up the steps.

Kenny reminded himself that a spark of decency after a series of unforgivable actions did not equate to likeability. He reminded himself but the intense relief and gratefulness that washed over his frame after the door closed and locked behind Kyle was so strong it almost approached affection.

Kenny sighed. No time for stockholm syndrome on speed, he had shit to do. He made the executive decision to rest his body for a bit longer but his eyes darted around the room to take stock of the items within. There was a washing machine that had seen better days, a shitty mop, a stained rug, the chained rigging that he still didn’t know if it had been here before or if Kyle had painstakingly set it up.

The home depot trip from earlier was an even more amusing mental image now that he had a face to the concept.

There wasn’t a lot to work with down here.

He didn’t know if there was an army of vampires waiting upstairs either. Though he was convinced it’d be easier to get one of them to kill him.

Ah. His eyes fell on the stairs. He could break is neck toppling down them? It was risky though. Knowing his luck, he’s end up breaking his spine instead and then he’d be Kyle’s little snack-pet for god knows how long.

His best bet was to see if he could jam the mop through his eye socket. He gave the decrepit thing a despondent look. Deaths like that were so  _ painful _ .

His eyes drifted back towards the locked door. Getting it open wouldn’t be an issue, he’d taken down more than one door in his lifetime and with much less, but he really had no way of knowing what was on the other end.

He had the slightest suspicion that Kyle was working alone though. He had the jitters of someone breaking the rules for the first time.

There he went treating the creep like a person again. Kenny rolled back against the cool wall. It was awfully tempting to just slide to floor and take an actual nap instead of nightmarish visions of the recent past.

He exhaled again.

“I can sleep when I’m dead.” He could laugh if it wouldn’t hurt to do so. He began the procedure of pulling himself up, feeling something like a puppet on cut strings.

“No rest for the wicked, huh…” he let his voice sit in the empty room, using the wall to support himself as he tried to plan his next move.

The sound in the distance was also concerning. It wasn’t something Kenny felt able to describe but it had certainly alarmed Kyle. If the damn vampire felt it was urgent to leave, it was probably doubly urgent for Kenny to follow suit.

He staggered away from the wall, determination feeding strength into his legs and made his way to the mop. He’d have to snap it, a sharper edge would improve efficacy significantly.

He didn’t get far, he didn’t even think he’d been left to his own devices for long. He wasn’t a good judge of that though, he knew he’d spent more than he ought to just staring at the room around him like it would somehow provide him with answers.

The door slammed open with such force that Kenny, despite the strain in his legs, hopped what had to be a full foot into the air.

“Where is she?!”

If he thought he’d heard Kyle’s voice furious before, he must have been kidding himself. In no time at all the creature was at the bottom of the stairs and gripping Kenny by the throat, slammed his head against a wall.

“What did you bastards do with her?!”

“ _ Who _ ?” Kenny choked but the creature squeezed it down, rage sizzling behind green eyes.

“I almost believed you,” Kyle spat out, hatred lacing his voice, “That this was all some horrible misunderstanding. Or worse. But no, you horrible creatures are everything that was described.  _ Where did you take her _ ?!”

Clearly he wasn’t up for actually listening to answers because instead of waiting for Kenny’s response, he slammed Kenny against the wall again, fingers digging into his trachea and blocking away all air.

“I don’t want to hear any of your bullshit or lies!” Kyle continued, leaning eye-to-eye with Kenny and pushing onwards, “You’re a fork-tongued lying sack of shit. I’m not falling for it.”

Kenny wondered, just briefly, what he’d actually done or said that was anything less than pointing out the obvious.

He wasn’t allowed much more thought because the air deprivation was making him see spots. Kyle slammed him one more time before dropping him, the sudden descent sending Kenny all the way to the ground, coughing and gasping for air.

"This was all your plan, wasn't it?!" Kyle snarled throwing him against the wall. "Thought you could distract me with your lies and bullshit while your people were out there taking her from us--if I wasn’t busy  _ listening _ to your bullshit I could have saved her..." Kyle choked, tightening his hold on Kenny's neck.

God, air wasn’t coming in well, had Kyle damaged something in his throat?

A cold voice tickled his ear, “You get one chance. Tell me what you bastards did with her or I kill you and the other rats.”

Kenny considered this only a moment.

He didn’t know who ‘she’ was. He didn’t know what had crawled up the monsters ass to make him return to his asshole-ish ways. Hell, he didn’t even know if he’d manage to get air in his lungs again.

He did know that he was about done with this circular pointless bullshit.

He used what little strength he had to slam his head into where he assumed Kyle’s nose was.

The grunt that earned him told him he’d been on target. He lunged forward, wishing he had strength in his arms and bit down on what he assumed was shoulder.

It wasn’t even hard enough to break through the fabric but it earned him a surprised cry of pain.

Being bit  _ hurts _ , asshole. Kenny wanted so badly to retort but he focused his energy on lifting his damaged arm for a punch.

It was stopped mid air by a firm grip.

“I warned you.”

Heart-stopping pain jolted through his system as Kyle’s teeth ripped through the flesh at the base of his neck. Kenny’s comparatively amature bite released in a silent cry of pain.

God, he couldn’t breathe.

The agony ripped through him and in a sickening moment of time, he was powerless to do anything. He tried to move his other arm but found it trapped under the firm unrelenting grip of the irrational bastard.

What was he even being killed over?

Kenny tried to find air but all he got was the sound of his life draining away while Kyle’s fangs dug deeper beneath his flesh. The intensity of it made him wonder if his neck was going to be ripped out.

There was a deep growl against his skin as the anemia took away the strength in his arms, they hung limply, reminiscent of earlier and a reflection of different scenes flashing through Kenny’s mind.

One had a firm grip but it was gentle. Guiding. Putting him down in a corner delicately.

The second, a meaninglessly tight grip on his arms, holding him still against a barrage of pain. Pointlessly restraining him even as he slipped away.

He’d been right to peg Kyle as simply a monster.

He hated that the name stuck with him even as he felt his ability to stay awake fade away, the promise of death eating away at the edge of his vision.

At least he’d be free. From this room. From the chains. From the sensation of burning and swallowing on his neck. From this weakness.

In the fog of pain and his quickly retreating mind, he could feel Kyle adjust his grip.

“If you bastards hurt her, I’ll kill you all.” the words were spoken into Kenny’s skin like a curse.

Never show true weakness, even in death.

Kenny laughed weakly, the act causing a new wave of pain to cascade through his being, “Monster.”

The last thing he could register was Kyle’s fangs digging down with renewed rage, draining away his last remainder of his consciousness.

_ Worth it _ .

  
  



	4. Chapter 4

The night was a reflection of the day. Beyond the lake and across a border, the sun was a never-ending constant to those that had no use of it. Those that longed for nothing further than the blissful reprieve of night.

The life cried for something to blame, something to defeat in order to bring back the balance to their world.

A lone hero cried out, knowing the answer, claiming the culprits, and demanding a march to retrieve what had been lost. The light burning the life to a crisp agreed in desperation and faith.

Ready to fight for their beliefs and to kill those who dared to cause them harm.

It was a foolish endeavor led by the cruel leading the foolhardy. A monument of pain represented in a terrible case of mislain blame.

\---

Killing Kenny had been perhaps a bit ill-advised and premature, Kyle could admit that to himself. For starters, if he was right about his suspicions of some sort of immortality or resurrection ability, it didn’t do anything but release a captive.

He’d been seeing red in the moment, Leslie’s capture rocked his entire world. To top it off, very few of the humans seemed even remotely capable of apprehending _Leslie_. In fact, the only one he could think of was the tricky bastard he had in captivity.

From that logical conclusion, he’d just lost his temper.

He felt betrayed, this strange creature had almost convinced him that they _weren’t_ maggots infesting the world with toxicity. The bastard had gone so far as to try convincing Kyle that _the wampir_ were the problem.

And he’d, in a moment of stupidity, trusted the damn thing. It was mortifying, it was embarrrassing, it was infuriating.

And while he’d spent time being duped by a lower life form, the rats had taken Leslie. How he’d let himself be pulled from her side just so he could get meaningless answers from a walking-talking snack.

It was so stupid. What a ridiculous joke he’d made of himself.

He stormed away from house, intent on returning to base and retrieving as much information as possible.

Foolish measures taken in stupidity. He scoffed, the slight inclination of his head keying him to the telltale skittering sound of the _maggot infested lying rats_.

It was easy. Concluded within a moment. Its body fell to the cobbles uselessly and it only serves to confirm everything he'd ever believed. Hollow eyes and mouth frozen in unspoken words. It didn’t matter, they couldn’t _speak_. None of these disgusting rodents could.

They were weak. Laughably so. What did they deserve to live for? To continue investing the planet meaninglessly and to cruelly take what is important from those that truly _matter_?

Easier to kill than a maggot. A worm. An ant.

The echo of clear blue eyes was only a nauseating reminder of that. Even their would-be champion was so easily devoured.

If they were created to be eaten so easily, then it has to be the correct decision to do so. It only made sense.

He burst into the main hall where the others squandered their time, “ _Where_ was she taken?!”

His voice was more aggressive than intended, the crowd flinched back from it, at least momentarily.

Bebe recovered first, eyes narrowed in that defiance that marked her character, “If we knew that, we would have already gotten her back.” she sneered.

“How could you let them take her?!” Kyle marched up, eye to eye with her, “They’re _worms_ , were your nails too delicately done up to squish them?”

Bebe leaned in, mouth a thin line, “What right do you have to toss blame? You were too busy out pouting like a little bitch to _be_ here.”

Kyle flinched back at the accusation. It was an echo of the ones he had already spent a great deal of time lobbing at himself.

A hand settled on Kyle’s shoulder, grip too tight and gentle in one, he looked up into the empty blue of Butters’ eyes.

“Don’t be like that.” Butters mouth smiled but it never did reach his eyes, did it? “We have plenty of enemies around us, no need to find ones within.”

Kyle frowned but conceded, backing out Bebe’s space while she did the same. Looking at her closer, he could see that she was injured.

He didn’t feel guilty for his words. He didn’t. He _didn’t_.

He was right. His stance was correct. His worldview was correct. He wouldn’t be challenged by Bebe or anyone else. His father was right, he needed to calm down and accept the status quo.

The one he’d killed on the way here. It had been hiding behind a dumpster shaking like a leaf. Its garbled speech sounded something like a drowned scream. It had looked up at him with terror. It’s eyes lost its shine, mouth formed into a permanent scream of agony.

 _He was not wrong_.

“Tell me what you know.” he demanded coldly, addressing the room in general but keeping an eye on Bebe in particular.

Her fists clenched beneath the table, no one else seemed to notice.

“It was a small one. It came in through the window and fired a strange weapon. When Leslie tried to defend herself it--it did something with a needle and Leslie collapsed.” Mike answered in her stead.

“Did anyone see what direction it went?” Kyle knew this was hopeless but he had to try.

Mike shook his head, “It threw something at us that released a gas. By the time anyone could see or smell again, both Leslie and the thing were gone.”

Kyle was going to murder every single one of the maggots in town until he found her. Starting with the ones that had attacked him with garbage.

It would be a nice ode to the piece of shit who had distracted him at such a pivotal time.

Kenny had lain on the ground, an empty face in an empty place, dead, staring ahead with sightless eyes and the echoes of resentment fading out with his attachment to life. His feeble limbs bruised under the strain Kyle had forced upon him. What remained of his blood pooling on the floor beneath him.

Kyle was hasty to kill him but he _wasn’t_ wrong.

His hands clenched into fists that mirrored Bebe’s and he swept from the room. Away from Bebe’s injury and hurt frown. Away from Butters mindless glee. Away from Mike’s foolish attempt at leadership.

Away from the echoes of death haunting his mind.

If what Kenny had said held any truth to it, that would make them monsters. He wasn't a monster. He was only doing what was sensible. What was reasonable. What he had been taught.

If he was wrong, then so was everyone else, and that wasn’t possible.

He made it to the restroom in time and heaved over the bowl, the contents of his stomach pouring into it and burning his throat on their way.

Intermixed in there was the remainder of what he had taken from Kenny.

The humans had taken Leslie though. _Leslie_. Anyone who would harm her had to be evil, she didn’t have anything but the best intentions. To protect, to--to--

She’d already suffered enough at the hands of those _beasts_. She was among those who had been injured when the humans had attacked their realm. She was the only one to return alive. She’d been so scared, she’d clung into his arms and sobbed.

_“Kyle, they took everyone--they want nothing more than to kill us all. We have to protect ourselves.” Leslie held the fabric of his vest, collapsed under the weight of her fear, but still her eyes locked with his._

_The truest shade of blue he’d ever seen, it made him breathless to see it close up._

_Her uneven breath touched his lips, there was hardly any distance between them at all, his heart couldn’t help but notice and sing its tantalizing song, “We have to stop them, Kyle. You’ll help me, won’t you?”_

It was Kenny’s word against Leslie’s and he _knew_ Leslie. He _loved_ Leslie. He had to protect her. He had to find her and _protect_ her.

Another nauseas upheaval kept him by the porcelain bowl and tears stung his eyes.

Kenny had been vulnerable as well, in those moments, but he hadn’t asked for anything. Anything he asked for, he paid for equivalently. He looked at Kyle with determined defiance even at the cost of his own life.

Kenny hadn’t clung to him desperately, eyes sullied by the impurities of this world, and he hadn’t smiled gratefully.

He snarled and spat and fought and joked and _lived_ so honestly.

Kyle stared into the red bile that filled the bowl. The remainder of the _creature_ that had threatened his worldview.

The bite on his shoulder stung.

Kenny had defied even the laws of common sense and _bitten_ back.

There was nothing that could be done for it. He’d made a decision to trust his people. To trust his father and Leslie and everyone that had fought for this.

He had to protect Leslie.

\--

The home that had once contained the trash slinging assholes was empty, Kyle had others spread out to look for clues of other locations regardless while he wondered the small shack.

A smell almost knocked him out of his senses and he stopped outside one of the doors.

It was Kenny. That was Kenny’s smell.

Faint, but he could never forget it. It was accompanied with memory of his defiant smirk.

“Has anyone searched this room?” He asked a passing companion, who shrugged and moved on. Kyle frowned.

It was fine. Even if Kenny was in there, it would be easy to end his life again. He could end Kenny’s life as many times as it took.

His stomach flipped at the concept.

He opened the door but there was no sign of an orange hood or terrible humor. Just a sparse room.

It had to be a bedroom, Kyle noted as he entered, the bed might be old and the furniture worn, but it was certainly a place someone had lived in.

There were pictures on the wall, tacked on sloppily. Kyle moved in, tearing one off the wall.

Kenny, Karen, and Kevin. If he still believed the creatures had names, that would be the ones he’d seen.

They looked happy. There was an unfamiliar duo of adults in the picture.

Parents, his logical mind supplied.

Impossible, his emotional turmoil combatted.

At least two of the people in the photograph were dead if Kenny’s words were to be believed. Which they weren’t. Kenny was wrong.

His eyes moved to the other photos, all depicting different happy moments trapped in time. He recognized the boy who had been rescued in the explosion in two of the photos.

He and Kenny slung arms over each other cheerfully, close, happy, intimate.

The picture he held crumbled in his hand.

Lies. These pictures were all lies. They portrayed a reality that couldn’t be there.

Besides, these creatures didn’t _deserve_ to be happy after all they had done. After all they had hurt. After taking _Leslie_. The crimes they had committed disqualified them from his sympathy.

_“Monster.”_

The echo of Kenny’s accusation forced him to turn away.

The wampirs and humans were _completely_ different. They had every right to do what had to be done. The humans didn’t have a right to fight back--

His shoulders slumped and the photo slipped from his fingers and to the ground. He stared at the frozen smiles.

This was exactly why his father was always on his case. Because he couldn’t just let well enough be. He needed to be stronger. Strong enough to ignore the nagging _doubt_ that ate away at his heart.

There was a low whistle that filled the air, signalling that someone had found something. Kyle stomped on the photo pointedly on his way away from the room.

He was right and they _would_ save Leslie. Kenny was a liar. A monster.

\---

It felt as though they had searched the entire pathetic village three times over. Kyle had even taken to following Butters around due to the man’s incredible tendency to find what would normally be overlooked.

It was an unpleasant and skin crawling experience, Butters humming softly but never seeming to go any particular direction.

It had already been over forty-hours since Leslie was taken. Kyle feared the worst.

The town was empty.

“Have you noticed anything strange, Kyle?” Butters asked softly, a few paces ahead.

Too many to count, too many to admit to. It felt as though the longer Leslie was away, the harder it was to cling to the notion that humans were evil.

He felt it should be the exact opposite. The longer she was gone, the more likely one of those _creatures_ had done something dreadful. It should be further proof of their guilt.

Still, without the dulcet tones of Leslie’s reassurances, he saw more and more in the town that fed the demon that crawled in the back of every working mind; _doubt_.

“What do you mean?” He asked, guarded.

Butters hummed, leaning down to pick something off the ground and examining it mildly, “The world seems clearer today than it did yesterday. Like a fog has been lifted or somethin’.”

It did. Kyle’s brow furrowed.

“So?”

Butters shrugged, tossing the item off to the side and continuing his meander.

“Nothin’ really. I was just making an observation is all. Does make ya wonder a little though,” he said, looking up to the moon held high in the sky, “What’s different between today and yesterday?”

Chills ran down his spine. He didn’t answer, following the humming man through the the quiet town.

“ _Loo loo loo_.”

Something in the air tasted treasonous but Kyle couldn’t put a name to it.

“ _I’ve got some apples._ ”

“What do you think about the humans?” Kyle tried to sound nonchalant, he didn’t think he’d succeeded but it would be impossible to read how Butters took the word.

“Tasty.” Butters chirped, practically skipping over a discarded corpse.

Rats had eaten out its eyes and any recognizable feature, not that there was much but meat for the rodent to sink its teeth into.

It was drained of every ounce of blood.

His tongue tasted the substance in a phantom effort to remind him of his own stance on the matter.

“Why do you ask?”

Kyle started at the question, shrugging his shoulders stiffly, “Nothing else to do but try to predict them, right? Otherwise how else are we going to find Leslie.”

 _Find Leslie_. The command weakened in his heart but he clung to it desperately. He had to protect her. He was the only one that could.

Butters giggled and twirled around to look him in the face.

What a horrifying visage Butters could make, Kyle’s own calls for self-preservation pleaded with him to put distance between them. It wasn’t that Butters looked particularly menacing, it was that he never did look menacing.

So you hadn’t the slightest clue when he would strike.

“Do you want to find Leslie?”

Something stung the bottom of his heart and hit him like a punch to gut, words spewing forth with ferver, “Of course!”

The beast beneath the surface that fed on unease, tactlessly referring to itself as uncertainty, stirred and clawed.

“You really think she’s still alive, though? Wouldn’t it be awfully foolish of the humans to let someone like Leslie live?”

The panic that raced through him at the thought was devoured by the beast, like a rabbit hopping straight into a bears mouth.

“She has to be,” he said weakly.

Butters calculated a moment, swinging his arms back towards the moon. The moon that remained. The only consistency in his shifting worldview.

“We could go to her.” Butters said, something meaningful in his eyes.

This statement could mean a whole slew of things.

Kyle knew what it did mean and indignant rage filled him, the knowledge that Butters had known, _known_ , where she was and _still_ \--

The _treason_ \--he should kill Butters where he stood!

A rat crawled out of the empty eye socket, holding a maggot between its teeth.

 _What’s different_.

Everything was different somehow. Despite his best efforts to remain unchanged in the cascade of transitions that haunted every aspect of his emotions, the _questions_ that demanded answers, the amount that didn’t make sense--

Answers he could never truly reach without speaking to Leslie again.

Leslie, Leslie, Leslie, _Leslie_ , it all led back to her words.

Because, as mutinous as the thought was, if he assumed that she was somehow _wrong_ the world began to make some sense again.

If he assumed she _lied_ a terrifying reality set itself into being. One he wouldn’t accept. One he _couldn’t_ accept.

Butters awaited his answer patiently, that subtle glimmer in his eyes threatening to take Kyle in and leave him a limp corpse on the street.

“Let’s go then.” Kyle said stonily.

The moonlight gleamed off the white of Butters teeth in his following smile, a dramatic flourish nature decided upon.

The maze of houses didn’t allow for much in the way of a path that could be sensibly followed but Butters had no issue. Butters was more at ease than ever and it was as disconcerting as anything to know.

Butters stopped, checked to see that Kyle was still following, and clicked his tongue.

“Aww gee,” he grumbled, “We were almost there, too.”

That was the warning Kyle received before multiple figures burst from the shadows.

A sharp pain ripped through his arm along with a loud _bang_ that took him by surprise. He had no time to take into account whether or not he was losing blood however, something else was jumping at him screaming.

**“W her e’s my s on, y ou craz y mon sters!?”**

Kyle blinked, startled at voice for long enough to allow the plank of wood being wielded to send him staggering backwards.

It was warbled, barely intelligible, but it was definitely a _voice_. It was a language.

And the speaker wasn’t Kenny.

It was an adult human panting heavily with a plank of wood and a manic look in his eyes.

There was another _bang_ but Kyle was onto the game, and ducked backwards and away from whatever it was the weapon was.

A voice warbled a curse from out of his range of sight and Kyle was struck with a dumb terror.

Were they wrong?

The man made another sound and charged Kyle, his own hesitation leaving him vulnerable to the blow. It sent him crashing to the ground.

In that moment he heard cheers.

Was Butters alright?

Another blow knocked sense right out of him. He had to fight back, he had to fight back otherwise he would die here.

He looked into the face of his attacker and it was the most relieving thing he’d ever seen.

It was a slow moment in time where he took in the expression. It wasn’t desperate, or scared, it was _vindictive_ , raising its weapon for a final blow.

 _Ah_ , he thought, it must have been his imagination playing tricks on him if he thought this strange creature was anything but needlessly cruel. It was a brute. A barbarian. It was going to kill him and Butters without hesitation.

It was such a relief to find confirmation of his beliefs. He was looking up into the eyes of a murderous monster, whose smile gleamed with bloodlust.

Kyle surged forth. Not even worth eating. A monster.

 _They_ were the monsters. It was _them_.

He saw the man’s eyes widen in disbelief and he stumbled backwards, he heard the echoes of cries in the background. He snapped the man’s--no the monsters--neck watching as wide eyes dropped with a crumpling body.

**“S tan…”**

It was his imagination.

He looked up and saw that Butters was covered in blood and not all of it was his own.

“You alright?” It was pointless to ask, but what was the point of being a part of a civilized society if he didn’t bother with such inane levels of kindness?

Butters giggled, “Two of them got away.”

Kyle nodded and he didn’t look down to the dead. That was such a pointless effort. He had his answer, he’d seen it in the human’s deranged eyes, there was no need to even ask Leslie about the matter.

After all, humans were just barbaric monsters that would kill them all given the opportunity. This was self-defense.

Butters was giving him that same odd look from earlier, assessing something inside that couldn’t be seen. Kyle hadn’t the foggiest what it was but he hid his thoughts under layers of indignancy.

Within them resounded Butters earlier question.

_What’s different today?_

“Don’t dilly-dally.” Butters chided, “We’re almost there. Also you might want to check your arm.”

Kyle looked down to the scrape on his arm. Whatever weapon had been used had gotten to him with great speed. It wasn’t a deadly wound, but it was bleeding more than it should.

Kyle felt a strange fascination at it, he’d been close to death all because he was thinking too much. This had to be why his father had told him, again and again, to save his questioning for someone that gives a damn.

And no one gives a damn.

“Do you ever wonder if what you know is true?”

Butters question caught him unawares, the same treasonous thrum from earlier in his words, “Meaning?”

“Could those you trust be liars?”

It struck him like a blow and he froze midstep, momentarily unable to proceed.

“Are you coming?”

Kyle forced his feet forward and trotted after Butters into an alleyway as they entered an area closer to the shops, and finally across another lane that was stained with the dead.

The smell was nauseating. It was a wonder he hadn’t started to take offense to it sooner. But like Butters had said, the world was clearer at the moment. Like a fog had been lifted.

Butters stopped by a normal house and Kyle heard it.

Inside there was that same warbled speech.

Aggressive. Inquisitive. Demanding.

His heart jumped into his throat, if there were still questions being asked within, it meant that Leslie was alive to answer them.

Kyle opened his mouth to cry out for her but a figure touched his lips into silence. Butters was looking at him with something akin to pity.

What reason would Butters have to pity him? The guy was halfway off his rocker on a _good_ day. If anyone should be pitied, it should be the one whose parents had--

He held himself back from even thinking it. The Stotch tragedy wasn’t something he should really refer to scathingly, even in his thoughts.

Butters gestured for him to follow, the gentle knit between his brow a warning to move as silently as possible.

It didn’t make a lot of sense. They could come in as brazenly as they liked and it wouldn’t make a single difference. The outcome would be in their favor.

Even with a hostage, the humans were no match for speed. Kyle glanced at the front door as Butters breezed past it towards the side of the building.

There were some wires there and Kyle realized grimmly that this house might just be waiting for them.

How much did he trust Butters, even? Butters knew about this location and said nothing. Butters didn’t seem to have any allegiance.

It was strange, he could recall a less terrifying boy from their youth who had been somewhat blindly patriotic.

Trauma could really change people, huh…

Kyle turned the corner and found Butters spying in a window, as still as death. Kyle approached, noting that the garbled speech grew louder the closer he got.

“-you sure I couldn’t make you happier?” Leslie’s voice purred, something coating it that welcomed a certain fuzz to Kyle’s thoughts.

Strange. Thoughts like that only made it seem as though Leslie was the source of the lost clarity.

**“Yea h, I don’t give a f u ck.”**

The second voice spoke confidently and Kyle was granted a look at the source when he peeked through the window.

There was Leslie, tied to a chair, his blood _surged_ to save her at the sight, and in front of her was a female human in ripped clothing and a loose bun.

Leslie growled low at the insult, “We grow stronger. Soon there won’t be any of you left.” Her voice changed pitch, the picture of innocence, “Don’t you want your final moments to be _pleasurable_?”

There was a promise in the voice. One that made Kyle uneasy.

He was sure he’d heard that promise himself. In that same tone. The words might have been different but the vow was the same. A vow that apparently was given freely and not just to him.

The human snorted, hefting a projectile weapon over her shoulder.

**“Re al ballsy of yo u to think you c o u ld please m e.”**

It suddenly struck Kyle that they were having a conversation. The human was talking and being responded to in turn.

Meaning the garbled voice wasn’t his imagination and Leslie could hear it.

_“They don’t even have language!” She sobbed inconsolably, “They aim to hunt us down, like mindless monsters. They don’t care about anything but killing us.”_

He kicked the beast inside back, it was entirely possible that Leslie was only now experiencing an ability to understand them.

It was totally possible.

Butters _tsked_ from his position and turned to look at him slowly.

There was no decision in his face. No creed. No commitment. It was the simple question of what would Kyle choose to do.

With complete horror he came to the realization that there _was_ a decision here, strangely enough. He could do exactly what Butters had done and turn away from the scene. He could walk back to base and pretend he’d never found where Leslie was being held.

Eventually they would grow tired of looking and without humans to hunt, it would be a perceived victory. His kind would retreat back through the lake and the worlds pressed so close together might ease their tension.

There was still the matter of the endless light that had haunted his homeland and caused the entire incursion, but they could find ways.

It was a horribly disloyal train of thought and he realized he longed for it. To return to what had been rather than lingering in a world where they had created streets of death.

It was the sound of Leslie crying out that made his decision for him. The human had raised a hand to the prisoner, apparently a sticking point in their conversation leading to the escalation of violence. Kyle couldn’t let her be hurt.

He couldn’t. He had to save her. Protect Leslie.

**P r o t e c t   L e s l i e**

He burst through window to the surprise of all parties including himself. The human fired off a shot before backing out of his path.

He didn’t bother with her, instead reaching to brush the bruise forming on Leslie’s perfect cheek. On her perfect face. Framed by her perfect hair. Beautiful. Beauty. Perfection. Everything.

“Are you alright?” He asked hoarsely and distantly he could hear some sort of scrap occurring between Butters and the human. It didn’t seem one sided to Kyle’s shock.

There was no time for shock. There was Leslie. _Leslie_.

She smiled benevolently, voice that delicate practiced pitch of sincerity, “Now that you’re here-”

It had the same promise she’d offered the human.

“-Untie me.”

He obeyed without thinking, a pleasant velvety confusion glazing over his thoughts. He didn’t need to consider any sort of strange complications with humans and ethics. He had this perfect woman who he would protect. Protect. Protect.

_“Kevin--” Kenny choked out, restrained by the weight of Kyle’s fingers around his throat, “Go.”_

The memory slapped him like a ton of bricks and he froze where his hands had finished freeing her.

Protect. Kenny had been trying to protect the humans. The ones in the picture. The ones he would sacrifice his life for, apparently on repeat. It was such a relatable emotion but Kenny had such fear echoing in his words.

He was protecting his family, but who protected him?

The thought created an uneasy emotion inside him.

Not like the rage that pulsed through him, knowing that he was muzzled. Knowing that something was _wrong_. Strange, new, and bleating for attention.

“Where _is_ that bitch?” Leslie hissed, rubbing circulation back into her wrists. Butters entered the room, looking quite a bit worse for the wear and shrugging.

“She escaped.”

His words didn’t ring sincere to Kyle’s ears but he didn’t comment. “Was she alone?” he addressed Leslie.

“To my knowledge.” Leslie’s face was morphed into immense displeasure and there was a promise of punishment in the look she sent Butters, “Arrogant _worm_.”

She was working alone.

Something in Kyle’s shoulders slumped and he made a blurred connection in his mind to recent events.

Thinking back or thinking clearly was growing difficult. On the flipside, the horrid smell of rotted corpses was fading in the smell of Leslie’s elegance.

But he killed someone for the crime of Leslie’s kidnapping. He could remember it.

Someone--why was it so hard to focus? He felt dizzy. It was like an explosion of something awful was hitting him at full force.

“Let’s go back to base.” Leslie straightened herself regally, a feat considering she appeared to be in a state, “We need to make plans to exterminate every one of these _maggots_.”

His eyes had looked hurt--but they held spite.

_“Monster.”_

The voice of his memory sounded in his own ear as though someone had whispered it nearby.

“Hurry up.”

Monster. He was a monster. He was _Leslie’s_ monster, that was the important part. He could be a monster for Leslie. He toddled after her, his thoughts and accusations left behind him.

How could he ever doubt her? The beast within him was silent, as though it could do nothing but nod in agreement. There wasn’t a thing that any sane person could ever doubt about _Leslie_.

She was, after all, nothing but--

He stared ahead sightlessly as he walked. He knew that Leslie and Butters were somewhere ahead. He knew that he was proceeding forward.

His mind couldn’t find the words to describe Leslie.

 _Perfect_ was the only explanation offered, left behind while the dictionary full of relevant words wandered away.

Was she?

He barely spotted a flash of orange out of the corner of his eye.

His eyes adjusted and the scents of the neighborhood hit him full force, sending him staggering backwards. Leslie took no notice, striding forward with that same strong determination--wasn’t she supposed to be weak and defenseless? Or was she keen and manipulative? Why did his perception of Leslie change by the minute, seeming to only form the adjectives that best suited her needs at any given moment?

He saw orange again and looked to the side where a pair of familiar blue eyes caught his.

There were humans around him, one was stifling a cry over a corpse, and Kenny was between Kyle and the grief stricken boy protectively.

 _Protect_.

An avalanche of emotions and shoulds assailed him, threatening to knock him off his feet.

He’d killed that boy. He knew he had. He’d seen that same boy die three times now, twice by his hand.

And yet there he was, brazenly between a boy and--

It was the man Kyle had killed earlier. Kyle blinked, the thought striking him with staggering clarity.

This was where Butters and him had been ambushed.

Butters.

He looked up ahead and sure enough, Butters had finally taken notice of his little intermission. It would be seconds before Leslie turned and noticed.

It would mean a sure death sentence. Another human was trying to pry the boy away from the body.

His father, in likelihood. Kyle swallowed.

Before him were two paths.

The blood strewn one he’d dedicated himself to, the one he’d _known_ was right, he’d _known_ was true, he’d _known_ was an extension of his very being.

And then there were the deep shades of Kenny’s eyes, firm and determined, echoes of accusatory words that rang with _truth_.

Treasonous.

Seconds. He had seconds to make a decision.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Leslie slow her march, the quiet behind her was the loud sort of quiet. The one that spoke of events happening outside of her notice.

He was aware of Butters’ eyes on him as well and there was no telling what Butters would choose, what he would say, but he had an inkling that the decision had already been made on some level. It was hard to imagine a human getting the better of Butters, especially in the element of surprise.

Truthfully, Kyle knew where his decision had landed already.

Leslie clicked her tongue, a pleased purr escaping, “What do we have here?”

She was already close to him. She could chase down any of the humans, all of them, and put on end to it.

She walked leisurely towards Kenny, not minding as the others fled behind. She probably had every intention of chasing them down, or she was counting on Kyle and Butters to do just that.

Kenny cocked his head to the side, a devil-may-care grin gracing his cheeks, “Don’t know if we’ve met.”

Leslie’s frame jolted slightly at the sound, apparently the clarity of Kenny’s voice was surprising even to her, it didn’t stop her approach.

He didn’t want her to get to Kenny.

He darted forward, situating himself between both surprised parties.

Kenny can’t die.

Kyle would have to bank on that knowledge.

He grabbed Kenny and pulled, moving him into a tight grip.

“This one's mine,” he asserted, and felt somewhat embarrassed over the dramatics of the statement. Leslie raised an eyebrow, she wasn’t used to this. He could tell. It wasn’t in character of him either.

“Really?” she said, amusement coating her voice and something like suspicion cutting the edge of it. “This is unlike you. What has you so eager?”

He could still hear the sounds of fleeing humans, panicked feet echoing across empty streets.

He needed to distract Leslie.

“It bit me.” he said, truthfully.

Leslie was truly interested now, “ _Really_? And it lived to tell the tale?”

Kyle looked over the breathing boy in his grip, “Apparently.” he grumbled.

“Hey, dudes, I’m right here. Didn’t anyone ever tell ya it’s rude to talk about people like they aren’t here?”

Leslie’s face wrinkled in disgust and he could see her about to reach for him. He need to keep him. He couldn’t let Leslie touch him.

He had to protect him.

The thought was strange and if he had to time to cross-examine it, he was sure he’d find things he didn’t like.

What he did have time to notice was how clear the thought was. It wasn’t a barrage of fuzzy emotions that he had no control over. It was an understanding in the way his heart pounded against his ribcage with the request.

Leslie’s smile was somewhat dangerous, “Well, if it bites, we can’t have you keeping it as a pet. Kill it.”

“ _Rude_.” Kenny said petulantly, paused, snarked, “Or kinky? I mean, the pet thing. That could be pretty kinky.”

It definitely wouldn’t be the last time that Kyle questioned his decision. He didn’t regret it though.

He’d have to kill Kenny. Again.

The idea didn’t sit well with him. But Leslie wanted a show and he needed answers. And Kenny couldn’t die, right?

He wasn’t sure.

He leaned down, sure that his words weren’t even a whisper into Kenny’s ear, “Don’t die.”

Kenny’s body stiffened and curious eyes lifted to examine him, see through him, but he nodded, imperceptibly.

There was a familiar black band around Kenny’s neck so he lowered his mouth to the shoulder. He didn’t want Leslie to know about the bands yet, if she didn’t already.

He didn’t want her knowing anything.

Butters saddled up next to Leslie and her attention was momentarily taken away.

 _Sorry,_ he mouthed into the flesh.

“Monster.” Kenny returned, there wasn’t any contempt there though.

He realized that Kenny’s goal had been the same as his. The same plan from two different individuals. Stay behind, be killed as a distraction, and revive to continue protecting his friends.

He hadn’t even fought back, not any of his normal spitting or egging, just awaited death.

It broke Kyle’s heart somehow.

Kenny might be bizarrely immortal but he could feel pain. Kyle knew this, he’d seen the results of it, he’d seen Kenny try to win despite agony weighing him down.

He bit down, the now familiar taste of Kenny’s blood filling his senses as the body convulsed. There was clearly something more painful than just the bite.

Kyle fists clenched and he felt his thirst colliding with a soul crushing guilt.

He pulled away. That hadn’t been enough to kill him, but Kenny’s body still sagged lifelessly.

“Are you done?” Leslie rolled her eyes, “He’s not dead, if you need help--”

 _No_ \-- Leslie could not touch him.

No. He was Kyle’s.

He squeezed the body closer to his protectively, a panic fueling a _hunger_.

And there was a hunger, Kenny was _his_ and he would be the only one to drink from him.

Kenny’s body shifted in in his arms and there was that blue again, questioning, calm, accepting.

 _Don’t just accept this_ \--he wanted to scream, _spit in my eye--struggle--fight_!

Blood spilled wastefully down his collar bone and beneath his shirt. Kyle didn’t follow its path farther.

Warring between guilt and doubt, a new beast arose and Kyle felt that this was the most dangerous one. Leering and demanding

He wanted more. It wasn’t enough. He wanted _more_.

Kyle returned to the task, tearing through flesh and allowing, for just a moment allowing the beast to have his way and drinking away the rest of Kenny’s life, until the corpse hung in his arms and it was all he could do to hold in a broken sob.

Kenny was right.

He was a monster.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just in case anyone wanted peek at some fanart: http://townycod13.tumblr.com/tagged/collidefictag  
> some srsly incredible artists like southparkt and shiraasan have been total sweethearts and drawn me incredible fanart for this story and i just about die every time I look at them<3 but these two sweethearts in particular have been incredibly kind, patient, and supportive of this story and it really helped me to finish up this chapter so this is entirely dedicated to those two ;w; I love you guys, omg, you're both amazing and have straight up stolen my heart ;w; this piece isn't terribly well-received but honestly, you two make me feel like I have a million fans<3 ;w; thank you so much ;w;


	5. Chapter 5

The rumble of a storm comes in a great variety of sounds. The distinct growling of the air itself, the trepidation in the air, or the gentle sprinkle of rain tickling the earth below.

This storm warned the world with the honeyed voice of an angel.

A trap hidden in promises and gentle kisses.

They say never to listen to the words of angels, hidden beneath are the curses of devils.

It was easy enough to fool the world into a waltz. Taking the time to dissolve the skies.

 _Take the book_.

Innocent requests acquisited.

 _Draw the sigil_.

A beautiful sigh hugging the air around cherry lips.

 _It will bring us together_.

Lies upon lies dancing in the clouds, pulling them back to reveal a terrible fate.

And in the loss, the witch smiled.

A chameleon with no creed and blood at her feet.

\---

Kenny stared up at the sky near his most recent _respawn_ point.

Honestly, it was a toss up at this point whether he’d end up on someone's roof, where he died, or fifty feet up in the air. There was normally _some_ consistency to his revivals, but since the beginning of this fuckery, even his the consistency of his revival from death had become wildly inconsistent.

Today, it was Stark’s Pond.

And it was cold.

Kenny lay half beached with his eyes on the sky and mind running a mile a minute.

Unless he had _entirely_ misread the situation, it appeared Kyle the Asshole Pretentious Murderous Vampire Of Not Funtimes and Lots of Voring had been attempting to _help_.

Admittedly, it was helping in killing Kenny and Kenny was just never a fan of killing Kenny.

But as far as he could tell, the other two creepoids had been too busy enjoying the show like the complete voyeuristic weirdos they were to chase after Stan and the others.

Speaking of, he really ought to get out of the ice cold lake before he caught his death and found himself in yet another random place.

Go to the hideout, do a headcount, prepare for more bullshit.

It seemed hopeless.

Even giving his all it felt like all he was able to do was use himself as a meatshield. While he could theoretically do so an infinite number of times, it wasn’t like it was making a dent in the ranks.

“Fucking assholes, the lot of them.” Kenny whispered to the night.

How he hated the eternal night.

It was just _obnoxious_ . Like those movies that decided to go overboard with the dark lighting and you’re just sitting there squinting at the screen to see anything, cursing the director with dark murmurs of _you do realize movie is a visual medium, right?_

Except the moonlight was bizarrely bright and the monsters didn’t care to hide in the shadows because they were too busy walking the streets brazenly, murdering folk left and right.

Mr. Marsh had been still warm when they found him.

Kenny clenched his fist. He’d made a decision when he separated from those adults for that exact reason. He’d known it’d be inevitable before they did something stupid and got themselves killed.

He’d made the right call.

It didn’t make it easy to live with himself though. It didn’t make it possible to close his eyes without seeing the raw grief in Stan’s face.

Right didn’t equate to _right_.

He’d have to live with it. Like everything else.

He finally managed to pull himself from the sludge, cursing as the cool night air touched his numbing legs.

He had shit to do.

There was a rustle behind him. A series of rustles, eerily. Definitely the crunch of leaves under foot.

At least one person out there that _wasn’t_ a woodland creature.

That’s lovely. Another likely end to a continuously strenuous life. Just a goddamn jog in the park, it wasn’t like he’d only _just_ revived or anything. Or like he’d _just_ dragged his carcass up.

There’s a degree to which the world works against progress. Kenny was pretty sure his was always tuned up to a hundred. Out of ten.

“Kenny?”

He blinked.

That wasn’t a voice he was expecting.

He turned and gaped openly.

“Wendy?”

The girl in question lowered an honest to god crossbow and closed the distance, pulling him into a short hug.

“You’re _alive_! I thought I saw--” she shook her head, that same bewildered expression many had as the brain mentally rewrote the course of events surrounding his deaths. “Nevermind that, thank god you’re okay!”

“Where’d you get a _crossbow_ ?" Kenny wasn’t really ready to let that detail go. Who the hell had a _crossbow_?

“I raided Jimbo’s shop early on. It’s the only projectile weapon he had where I can retrieve the ammo and doesn’t alert everyone to my location.”

Smart. Damn, Wendy had always been really smart. Kenny had been avoiding guns for some of the reasons above but he hadn’t considered the possibility of other projectiles.

“Are you alone?” She looked around anxiously and he shook his head.

“Stan and a few others are hiding out at the shooting range. I was heading there now, do you want to come with?”

It wasn’t really a question. Obviously she would come with. Strength in numbers and he could honestly use Wendy’s brains in this situation. Who knows, maybe it would turn the tide.

That was why it came as a surprise when she bit her lip and stepped back a bit.

“I can’t.”

That was unexpected.

“Why not?”

Her gaze rose to the moon and Kenny followed it, searching for the answers she apparently thought were hanging in the sky.

“I think I’m onto something. I---if I go with you, I’ll only put everyone in danger. You guys should just stay hidden for as long as possible, okay? I can handle this.”

Her face was a picture of grim resolve.

“Wendy?”

She broke away from the moon and smiled but it was a painful curl.

“Don’t worry. I know who’s behind this.” Her knuckles whitened on the handle of her bow. “I’ll fix this.”

The thing about Wendy Testaburger was there was no telling what she would do until she did it. Win, lose, or draw she could always take actions to the next higher escalation.

And the trouble wasn’t either with her or against her. It was that she made those decisions independently and alone.

He tried anyway, knowing the resolution in her face for what it was.

“We could help. I could--”

She shook her head. A firm and decided motion.

“Go back into hiding, Kenny. Keep them safe.” She backed away, a hesitant stutter to her step, “You can do that, right?”

Could he?

“It’d be easier if I had help. Don’t be the loner character, dude. That character always dies. Please Wendy.”

“This isn’t a movie.” She wouldn’t break eye contact. He wished he had someone like Stan here. Even Nelly probably had more sway with her. Someone to convince her this was dumb, “I don’t have a choice. I’m the only one who can do it.”

He’d lost. Changing Wendy’s mind was akin to moving the moon.

“Please don’t die.”

He wasn’t sure he could handle more of his friends passing on.

\---

By the time he’d returned to base, it was worse than anticipated. It was a given that Stan might be a bit inconsolable seeing his own father’s corpse. It was apparently a whole other realm of grief for Shelly.

Especially since her usual response to extreme emotions was anger.

Firkle and Pete still hadn’t been able to find their own friends. Dead or alive, they’d spent most of their time searching likely hide-outs and carefully eyeing every dark clothed corpse they walked by. Neither of them appreciated loud Marsh grief.

Nelly and Kevin were on a supplies run and Karen was trying extremely hard to play mediator in an impossible situation.

Kenny needed them to stop being so loud. The soundproof shooting range was only going to get them so far if they kept this up. And it was still a toss up exactly how supernaturally enhanced the shitty vampire hearing was.

There wasn’t really any calming down Shelly Marsh though and the goths weren’t going to back down from a fight.

And Stan’s sobs weren’t helping matters.

This would require tact.

Kenny put a hand on Karen’s shoulder, she shot him an alarmed look but stopped her own pleas for peace. One down, four to go. He directed Karen towards Stan’s slumped figure. He could trust her to find a way to unravel some of the pain knotting inside him. Or at least get him to cry himself to sleep.

Three to go.

He tapped on Firkle’s shoulder, it drew the child's attention away from Pete and Shelly’s heated exchange.

“I checked around Stark’s Pond, they weren’t there.”

Firkle nodded thankfully, some tension leaving his shoulders in a hopeless slump. It was one of the last places they had marked off as likely hiding spots. He tugged on Pete’s sleeve and they fell into a silent and sad conversation.

“Don’t ignore me!” Shelly spat at them as Kenny approached.

He didn’t know how to comfort her. He didn’t know what she was like and he didn’t know what sort of relationship she’d had with her father.

He did however know what he’d wanted after he found the bloodless remains of his parents.

“What are you doing--” her voice choked over itself and he wrapped his arms solidly around her center.

“I’m sorry.”

He meant it. From his deepest emotions he was sorry that his decisions had led to Randy Marsh’s untimely death. He was sorry he couldn’t do more. He was sorry she was in pain.

He was sorry and it tore through him, ravaging his means of feeling anything, leaving a wasteland of remorse inside him.

Shelly insulted him, she screamed, she tensed, she blamed him and absolved him of guilt in the same sentence, and then finally...she sagged.

“H-he can’t be gone. Not him too.”

The silence took the grief and played the melody of pain as the room shook with the gentle sobs of those who were lost and scared.

Kenny knew he had to protect them. Change the tide of this insane situation but he was pathetically overpowered. Even the singular sacrifice he’d made earlier seemed to be nothing more than a monster’s twisted pity.

If they’d wanted to or felt inclined to, even that attempt to protect his friends would have been thwarted. It haunted him.

What happened when they found a corpse they refused to be pulled away from? What if Stan found another friend’s mangled body and walked straight into death's embrace?

What if the goths found Henrietta or Micheal and did the same?

In an ideal world Wendy’s resolution would result in a critical change, transitioning the circumstances.

In all likeliness her insistence to work alone would only result in her own corpse being the one to finally break Stan completely.

He was responsible to keep them alive. He’d committed to it and he meant to keep that commitment no matter what. He just wanted to keep them safe.

Would Kevin find a friend and not come back with Nelly?

The pain of loss was as daunting an enemy as the fucking bloodsuckers. They couldn’t fight it, only put it off, if they could manage even that.

“I’ll kill them all.” Shelly promised between her tears, low and full of intent and Kenny understood the emotion as well as he did the grief.

\---

In the time it took Kevin to return, matters had calmed down enough to welcome the painful silence. He shared a look with his brother before helping Nelly carry in more rat poison and more food.

Rat poison would become an issue soon. Using it in traps resulted in too much of an expenditure for a limited resource. Not to mention, it definitely wasn’t a healthy substance for humans either.

It just wasn’t as bad for them as it apparently was for the vampires. Or whatever they were called, according to Kyle the shit-head.

He tensed at the memory. Fucking Kyle. The poster child of arrogant vampire assholes.

What did he make of that asshole?

There wasn't really time for that. Wasting time thinking about contradictory bloodsuckers wouldn’t save anyone here. He needed to give the group purpose. Mere survival had waned as a motivation as they slowly drifted towards acceptance laden despair.

“Kevin, can you ration out the food?”

Kevin nodded, dropping a comforting but firm hand on his shoulder as he passed.

What sort of goal could they reasonably achieve? They didn't stand a chance at fighting but that was the only purpose he could think of.

“I'm going to check the area,” Kenny clicked one of the cheap walkie-talkies they took from Jimbo's abandoned store, “I'm on channel four. Contact me if _anything_ happens.”

There were varying degrees of affirmation but it was to be expected. He wasn’t really the leader, just a guy who made demands here and there. On occasion he was obeyed.

He had the trust of his siblings though, which gave him the majority vote. Everyone else was too busy voting for themselves to notice the disparity.

He didn’t like going out into the chill of the night so soon. His clothes were barely dried from his dip in the pond and the moon wasn’t a reprieve from the gentle sobs he could still hear in the back of his mind.

The moon was a taunting bastard hanging in the sky with the intent to swallow them all in it’s chill.

He swung his bat around absently. An odd mood. He was almost hopeful to run into a blood sucking bastard and show it what he could do. It wouldn’t do anyone any good, whittling their numbers one by one wasn’t going to make any real dent considering they killed in mass.

Would killing them indiscriminately make him just as guilty as they were? Labeling the lot of them as monstrous hive minded beasts?

It was an easier concept to buy into earlier in the week. They were mindless bloodsucking monsters.

The marks had vanished in death but he still found himself touching where he’d been last bitten.

 _Sorry_.

Kyle had avoided the poison soaked cloth but he hadn’t removed it. That felt like it had meaning.

Kenny swung the bat at a nearby mailbox and sent the box flying.

What meaning could a monster possibly have?

Besides, it hadn’t stopped Kyle from killing him again. Nothing apparently would. Kenny was just an bottomless juicebox to the asshole apparently.

He knocked down the pole the box had been perched on as well and continued down the empty road.

He was being dumb. The way he was waltzing around, he was _asking_ to be found by something unsavory but the emotions inside wouldn’t be quelled.

He wasn't sure they ever would.

He could still feel Shelly’s trembling.

Hear Stan’s sobs.

Feel the sensation of his own death humming beneath his skin.

Was Kyle the one who had killed Mr. Marsh? Or was it the crazy blond?

Or the creepy bitch?

Kenny stilled and frowned at the ground below.

There was something _off_ about her. He’d seen her before. When he first made his invasion of the city hall. Kyle had been weirdly subservient to her, was she the boss? Or just ranked above him?

How did the vampires organize leadership?

He swung at another mailbox.

Probably his creepy vampire lover or something. They were probably emo in love for an eternity or whatever was popular in those crazy chick flicks about vampires being hot.

Kenny snorted and murdered a new mailbox, this one had a pretty good lift.

Vampires? Hot? Didn’t belong in the same reality, much less the same sentence.

And Kenny would be the first to admit he had some pretty dicey standards for what could and could not be considered hot.

Disgusting deformed _monsters_ did not make the list _._

His shoulder itched uncomfortably and he took a low swing at one of the fallen boxes he’d caught up to.

There was something in that venom. Kenny wasn’t sure what it was but it stayed with him even after revival, each time leaving a more expansive _itch_. Something below the surface he couldn't scratch and couldn’t understand.

The possibility of the contagious nature of vampires in films had occurred to him an uncomfortable number of times but no fangs and no blood lust had cropped up yet, so he was assuming at the moment it wasn’t the case.

His latest boxy victim landed a few yards away at the time as a new sound.

“Well, well, well, looks like this one got lost.”

“Aw, it’s cute. Dibs!”

“We can share it.”

Kenny tightened his grip on his bat, he didn’t dare turn yet. At least some of the information he’d gotten from Kyle was useful.

These creatures were under the impression humans were just mindless cattle. Used correctly, it was another advantageous element of surprise.

“Shh, it hasn’t noticed us yet.”

Kenny rolled his eyes, tuning his ears for the jump step.

The vampires had two speeds. Normal and ludicrous. It was too slow to get them if they’d already jumped in speed. Kenny learned that the hard way.

However just as they sped up it would dependably make a louder _thunk_ against the ground.

 _There_.

Kenny swung blindly behind him and sent one flying, ducking down in the next motion to avoid the second. It worked well enough, the bloodsucker stumbled in surprise over missing the mark.

Kenny’s walkie talkie crackled but no words were heard.

His heart stopped.

Was he still in range? Were they calling for help?

“This one's slippery.”

They regained their composure easily enough.

Goddamn, they were predating. Kenny tensed as they circled, looking for the perfect moment to strike.

They were wrong to do this. All the moments were perfect. Kenny couldn’t match their speed and he definitely couldn’t take on two at once.

They were just enjoying playing with their food.

The thought slipped through and he bit his tongue. So be it. They could play all they wanted, he’d use it against them.

“Bring it on,” he taunted, tapping his bat to the ground, knowing they wouldn’t understand, wouldn’t try to listen. “Bite me.”

One dove forth. Kenny knew if he responded the other would take advantage. He waited for the creature to find his neck and _yes_ \-- the creature pulled back howling from the pain in its teeth.

Kenny used the bat to sweep out its legs and in one smooth arc smashed its kneecaps.

It screamed. The pain was real.

They felt pain. They were capable of thought.

They weren’t mindless monsters and _yet--_

Why were they still capable of such horrible genocidal behavior?

He knew the answer, as a human with the shared guilt of his species--of course he knew the answer, but it made him wince as he made it so the creature would probably never walk again.

They really were uncomfortably similar to humans.

“You _bastard_!”

Ah, the second one, Kenny was too late turning around and it had smacked his bat away.

Kenny lurched forward and head butted it in the teeth.

It was painful but it gave him time to create distance, jumping backwards from the howl of pain.

They glared at him, one prone to the earth and the other holding its mouth. They would make his death painful, their eyes promised. They would make his death slow, they swore.

Maybe he didn’t stand a chance.

He wouldn’t stop fighting though. He needed to stay alive.

“Not quite the Happy Meal you were hoping for?” He laughed mirthlessly.

He couldn’t last much longer but the crackle of the radio was still haunting the corners of his mind. Who knew how far away he’d respawn if he died here? How long it would take?

“Did it just speak….?” The one on the ground asked, catching its allies attention.

“That’s impossible!” It argued, stepping forward, “I’m going to kill it.”

Kenny had to incapacitate something that moved several times his own speed. With no weapons, no method of bargaining, and no time.

He picked up the remains of one of the mailbox poles, ironically something of a wooden stake, and held it in preparation.

The ground crunched behind him.

“Katie, carry Vladimir back to base.”

Kenny froze at the voice and the _itch_ beneath his skin screamed.

“But--!”

“ _Now_. I’ll handle this one. It can lead us to information on the one who took Leslie.”

‘Katie’ glared over at the command with insubordinate ferocity but nodded, lifting up her fallen companion and stalking off.

He didn’t dare take his eyes off of the pair until they had turned a corner and then he mentally counted to three.

 _One_ , he wasn’t going to be a goddamn juicebox.

 _Two_ , he wasn’t going to die.

 _Three_ , he was going back to the shooting range.

Kenny whirled with the stake, poised and ready.

Kyle grabbed his arm.

“You’re getting a little predictable.” Kyle complained.

Kenny kicked his stomach, causing him to loosen his grips. Kenny used the momentum to create a much needed distance.

It _itched_.

Kyle held up two hands in the universal _hold on a minute_ but honestly, for all Kenny knew that was the vampire version of _fuck you_ so he wasn’t going to ease up any.

“Come for another snack?” He sneered and cocked his head to one side, “I know I’m delicious, but don’t you think you’re going to get fat at this rate?”

“I’m not--” He paused. Defeat wasn’t a tone that suited Kyle’s voice, at least not how he was used to him modulating it, it had none of the normal better than-thou bullshit. “...I’m not here to fight.”

“Last I checked there wasn’t a lot of fighting, just a lot of all-you-can-drink buffet.”

“Not that either.” Kyle looked around nervously and it was clear he was anxious of being overheard, “You were right.”

Kenny took a cautious step further away. When crazy people start sounding sane, that was when the really bad shit happened in his experience.

“Right about what?”

“Everything.” His voice was heavy and it sagged with his shoulders. Kenny quirked a brow.

This wasn’t meeting his expectations. He had to regain his footing.

“So you _are_ called vampires?”

“No--what?” Kyle did a double take and it was so close to the person he’d been before he’d gone berserk in the basement. The Kyle who almost seemed like a person instead of a monster. Kenny hated it. “Not that. About _this_.” He gestured broadly to the chaos around, the fallen city and dead streets, “This is wrong. We shouldn’t be here. This was a mistake.”

“No shit.” Kenny judged the distance between here and the abandoned bat. “What difference does that make though? You’ve made it _pretty_ clear your only allegiance is to tasty’s in your tummy.”

And the creepy vampire lady. She stuck in Kenny’s mind like a neon sign.

“I--You’re not making this easy.”

He scoffed, “And since when am I under any obligation to make anything easy for you?! You _ate_ me. _Twice_.”

“Three times.” Kyle corrected and _goddamnit_ why was he such a stupid stickler for details. What a fucking nerd.

“ _Thank you_ , for making my point for me!” Kenny threw up his arms and hoped it disguised his half step towards the weapon.

Kyle flinched. “I’m not going to anymore! I’m--I don’t…”

“And what evidence do I have you won’t change your mind the second you get a bit peckish? Last time you seemed almost decent, you disappear for maybe thirty minutes before suddenly it’s bloodsuck city all over again!”

“That was different! I thought you’d--!” He cut himself off and there was clearly something he didn’t want to share. He’d barely managed a full sentence this whole time and he was usually such a wordy motherfucker.

“That I’d _what_? What could I have possibly done chained up in a basement at your kinky mercy?”

“You’re never going to let the kink thing go, are you?”

“Never.” Kenny promised, which was a pretty hefty one considering he had a potential eternities worth of ever to not let something go. “My point is you’re a giant angry asshole and I think I hate you. No, scratch that, I _definitely_ hate you.”

Kyle grit his teeth, “You’re not my favorite person either but _unfortunately_ you’re the only human I can communicate with.”

“ _And_? I thought talking lunchables were an inconvenience.”

“I want to _stop_ this. We have to stop her.”

“Uh huh.” Kenny crossed his arms, “And this ‘she’ would be?”

Somehow he had a very clear vision of a _her_.

“Leslie.” Kyle said the name reverently. Like a prayer. Then he frowned, looking away with something like shame coloring his face, “She’s…I don’t know what she’s doing.”

“So we have to stop ‘Leslie’ from doing _something vague_ because _reasons_ and I’m supposed to help you as a tagalong human _because_...” Kenny rolled his wrist meaningfully. The bat was almost reachable now.

“I think she’s the reason we can’t understand each other.” Kyle said and it sounded like an uneasy confession, “When she was taken I could almost--I could _hear_ the other humans. And smell--the smell around here…” Kyle’s hands were clenched firmly at his sides, “But when we got her back--she’s--it’s strange, it’s like all the senses get _numbed_ and it’s harder to think logically.”

The whole thing sounded ridiculous.

There was no reason to believe him and no reason he would lie.

Sure, _maybe_ this was a plot to lead the vampires to the remaining few humans left, but in this war of attrition the vampires were already guaranteed to win.

It was probably something like that, honestly, but _still_ \--he couldn’t help but give into the curiosity. The question posed by the broken posture of the previously arrogant, the uneasy voice, and the potential of _maybe_ \--

“Leslie is the one from last time? Black hair and epic bitch face?”

“She does not--” Kyle caught himself and growled, he sounded more frustrated with himself than Kenny, “Yes. That was her.”

Defensive.

Kenny decided to test those waters.

“She’s a creepy motherfucker. Seemed like a giant bag of dicks in my opinion. Or, wait, does she suck the dicks? Is that what’s happening? She blows your mind?”

Kyle’s knuckles were white as some internal war was waged.

He needed to push harder.

“Bad break up so you want me to kill her, right?”

Kyle jolted forward and in one moment there was the face of the monster again, enraged and ready to bring an end to this meaningless banter.

And then in the next there was the broken face of a terrified boy.

Disgust, anger, and shame all danced across Kyle’s face before he forced himself to look away.

“Doesn’t sound like you’re ready to move against her.” Kenny commented mildly, taking in every muscle twitch of Kyle’s.

“It’s not simple--something--she does _something_ to me. And I--” his voice broke painfully and there was a real emotion hanging there, raw and shattered. “--I know she has to be stopped.”

“ _Or_ you have a thing for her and despite attempting to go undercover to get information from me, you’re too attached to her to put on an act.” Kenny pointed out.

The growl wasn’t animalist but it was distinctly _inhuman_. It was a gutteral sound from the deepest parts of Kyle.

It was angry.

“My feelings for her aren’t the issue here.”

“So you _do_ have feelings for her.” Score one for McCormick, “You sure this isn’t a case of _oh no, my crush is making me feel feelings! It must be mind control_!”

“Trust me or not.” Kyle said, breathing in deeply in an attempt to hold his temper, “I’m _telling_ you that she’s influencing myself and the others.”

How convenient. A big baddie.

Rage bubbled up in his stomach and stretched to every inch, pulsating with suppressed accusations.

They don’t get out of this.

“Oh, so you get absolved of guilt then?” Kenny sneered, chancing another inch towards his bat, “You get to say _oh, I’m not the monster! She’s the monster_!” He spat. “You get to pretend your crimes mean nothing because you were just following orders? Fuck you.”

To his surprise, Kyle’s eyes met his in an intense lock as pain seared through green eyes.

“No.” His head lowered, defeated, and Kenny startled at something wet building in the corner of one eye.

He shouldn’t be allowed to cry over this.

“We’re all monsters.”

He shouldn’t be allowed to look remorseful. Some things can’t be forgiven.

“You were right.”

Kenny felt a searing anger.

Too late. It was too late for this monster to show regret.

Kyle’s body stiffened and he still wouldn’t look at Kenny again as he repeated himself. “You were right.”

His voice shook and it was so packed with emotion that it momentarily shocked him out of his rage.

Huh.

That was unexpected.

Either Kyle was an exceptional actor or at least some of this was sincere.

Kenny didn’t think he was ready to accept either answer.

“If this Leslie asshole is so good at mind control, how do I know you’re not being influenced right now?”

“What purpose could that possibly have?” Kyle asked, the argument in his voice fighting down the emotion.

Kenny shucked his shoulders and tried to remember how to remain calm, “I dunno, I’m not a crazy mind controlling vampire bitch, I don’t pretend to understand what she’s thinking.”

Kyle still flinched every time he said something negative about her. It was interesting to watch but it did seem to be a completely involuntary motion.

Dear god, he wasn’t actually starting to believe this pile of shit, was he?

The notion alone made him nauseous.

The silence took over the scene, ripping apart reporte and debate. Staring one another down and trying to form the next plan of action.

Kyle was the first to speak.

“...Are your friends okay?”

Kenny stiffened and edged in the direction of the bat again, thoughts racing back to the buzz of his radio.

“Why should I tell you?”

“You don’t have to.” Kyle said, “I...” his next words were so low as to be unintelligible.

“You?” Kenny prompted.

“I was worried.” Kyle readjusted his stance and Kenny noted it was something he did a lot when he felt defensive. Adjust his stance against the world and stand by what he had said or done with ferocity.

Interesting.

“About midnight snacks? Wow, must be a boring life if you have time to do that.”

“They’re not…” Kyle inhaled roughly, regaining some strength in his voice, “They’re not food. You’re not food. None of this should have happened. You have _lives_ . Loved ones--it’s practically _cannibalism_.”

“...Amazing deduction there, Sherlock. Took you killing me--what did you say it was?--Three times to figure that out. Each time with your food squirming for freedom and you still decided to chow down?”

The memory brought his attention back to the persistent _itch_ and it was strange. He couldn’t call it painful but it was an ache.

Thrumming beneath the skin and flaring at every movement from the monster.

“It’s not simple…” Kyle began but Kenny wouldn’t give him that.

He didn’t get excuses.

“It _is_ simple. If my sandwich looked me in the eyes and said _hey bro, don’t each me, that would be a dick move_ , I wouldn’t eat the fucking sandwich!” He would also wonder if someone had drugged him but that would derail his point so he set it aside. “You made a _choice_ to ignore the sandwich! You made a _choice_ to kill people.”

“And I’m making a choice now to put a stop to it!” Kyle stamped his foot and stormed close enough to invade Kenny’s personal space quite a bit closer than he was comfortable with, his skin _screamed_ . “It’s fucked up and I _can’t_ fix what’s already been done but I _can_ stop it from going any farther!” Kyle locked eyes and took hold of his collar, “So what choice are you going to make?! One to ignore a chance to end this all?! Or one to save the people you care about?!”

Kenny punched him in the face. The crack of his knuckle was worth watching his face forced to the side.

Kyle didn’t back away. He released his collar and brought his gaze back to Kenny with determination pouring from his entire being.

“You can hit me as much as you want. I admit I deserve it.” There was a fire in his eyes matching the voice, “But stop thinking with your emotions and start using your head.”

“I _am_ using my head and it says, very clearly I might add, that trusting a guy who gleefully murdered you is a _bad idea_.”

“Then don’t trust me. Use me and I’ll use you. So long as this _ends,_ I don’t _care_ how.”

“I care how!” Kenny grabbed the fucking ascot as leverage to yell in his face, “I care if it leads to losing _more_ people I care about! It’s not just my life in my hands, _dammit_ , and you’re---”

What to even put to words what Kyle was?

A contradiction within the ranks of vampires. A tenacious monster with an insatiable appetite. A curious bastard who aims to understand the discrepancies around him.

Kenny clenched his mouth shut, daring Kyle to comment.

“I killed him.”

Kenny blinked, an alarm blaring inside his own skull.

“Who?”

“The man. The one your friend was crying over. It was me.”

Kenny headbutted him.

Kyle made no move to retreat so he also caught Kenny’s following punch to the gut, which had him doubling over.

And an elbow to his shoulder blade had Kyle on his knees and in one swift movement, he’d retrieved his bat and swung backwards, stopping mid swing at Kyle’s collapsed figure.

Not moving. Not fighting.

He closed his eyes, tears threatening to mortify him. He breathed in unevenly, hoping to catch the trail of his rage it left behind.

“His name was Randy Marsh.”

Kyle didn’t look up and it was horrifying to realize he was awaiting judgment.

“He wasn’t a good father, he wasn’t a perfect person, but he was _Stan’s_ . He was _Shelly’s_. You bastards already took their mother.”

He couldn’t breathe. Not really. The bat shook in his hand, sending a plea to send Kyle’s head flying like a mailbox.

“He didn’t deserve to _die_ .” Kenny’s voice trembled, “He doesn’t come back like I do. No one else does. When they die, they’re _dead_.”

Kyle hadn’t moved.

Kenny collapsed to his knees, dropping the bat.

“You’re a fucking monster.”

Kyle flinched but he didn’t argue.

The words _why_ ate at Kenny’s tongue.

He couldn’t ask. He couldn’t give it words.

He already knew the answer and he didn’t know if he could handle hearing it.

He had the feeling Kyle would express it in honesty though.

There wasn’t a method of understanding the emotions that threatened to break him. He couldn’t find the strength. He needed the strength.

He needed to ask questions, be critical, be strong--he needed to make the _right_ choices. Even if they cost more than he could bare to lose.

“And what possibly is it that has you changing your tune now?” Kenny asked hoarsely, “Why is it that after all this bloodshed you want to turn in your cape and stop?”

Kyle’s eyes were an open expanse of green when he looked up and it was such a raw emotion Kenny’s stomach flipped.

“You.”

Kenny punched the ground, once, twice, the third time was stopped by a white gloved hand.

He needed to punch _something_. He didn’t know if he could punch the fucking bloodsucker anymore.

Kyle’s hands were firm but gentle.

“You’re going to break your hand.”

Kenny laughed hollowly, “What does it matter? If I die it will be as good as new. At the rate I die these days, it wouldn’t make any fucking difference at all.”

Kyle squeezed his hand and Kenny was forced to look back into those eyes.

“I won’t let that happen again.”

“ _You’re the one killing me half the time_!” Kenny complained.

Kyle smiled mirthfully and it was a small awkward thing, it didn’t fit into the scene, “Well, then half my work is already done.”

Kenny looked down to their joined hands again.

It was weird. It was all so weird.

Punching Kyle would do nothing, punching the ground would do less.

There was no room in his heart for accepting the situation at face value.

“I don't forgive you.”

Kyle's grip didn't falter, “I'm not asking you to.”

Kenny tried to quirk a smile, find the humor lost in the despair, “Okay, but couldn't you have tried this whole ‘not being a giant asshole thing’ _before_ the kink dungeon. It would make this whole thing much easier to accept, just saying.”

Kyle snorted, “But then how would I get off?” Sarcasm rolled off every syllable, shaky still.

So the ass-nugget had a sense of humor after all. Or maybe he was just trying too hard.

“Ah ha! I knew it! You kinky sado bastard!” Kenny triumphed, and it still lacked energy. He couldn’t find his laugh.

“That was very clearly a joke.” Kyle rolled his eyes. Of course he wouldn’t be able to keep up the humor for long.

At least it was more familiar ground.

“Didn't know you guys could joke. Ya know, I had some A grade material in the sex dungeon and you didn't laugh _once_.”

“You're making the rather large assumption that you're funny.”

Kenny gasped dramatically, “Excuse you, I'm hilarious.”

The second time he was forced to accept that under different circumstances, maybe he wouldn’t feel such a thick coating of hatred.

Stupid vampires fuck everything up.

Kyle's hand slowly untangled from his own. Perhaps he'd noticed Kenny had lost interest in showing the ground who's boss.

It wasn't comfortable. Seated across from the defecting enemy and knowing yet another decision was in his hands.

A decision balancing so many lives. A decision which had no easy answer.

The problem was he did believe Kyle. It made an odd sort of sense and honestly, Kyle had not yet struck him as an impressive liar.

In fact, he was the most impressively terrible liar Kenny had ever met.

The problem was if he had an inside man, it changed solving the vampire problem from impossible to potentially feasible.

They could fight back, make a plan, and find a solution.

The problem was the temptation to allow misguided trust blind his judgment and risk putting his own life and the lives of those trusting him in the hands of an arrogant bastard who killed Stan's dad and who _knows_ how many others.

The stakes were too high.

“Say that I do agree to work with you.” Kenny hedged, “What would that entail?”

Kyle’s expression didn’t offer any answers, “I don’t really know.”

“...You don’t know.”

“I know I can’t do it alone yet there’s no one outside of the thrall who I trust…”

“And you can trust me? Some random human asshole who can’t die?” Kenny’s skepticism could have probably cut a neat slice of pizza. And then eaten it mockingly in the stupid idiot’s face.

Now Kenny wanted pizza.

“I can trust that you want an end to all this.” Kyle said firmly, “And that’s the only thing I need right now.”

That was a fair assessment at least, Kenny could admit.

“Ya really know how to make guy feel wanted.” Kenny drawled and traced the ground with a finger.

Perhaps it _could_ work if he kept Kyle completely separate from the others. It would at least lower the risks involved.

He knew he wanted to give it a try. It was too enticing to ignore when he was at the end of his rope.

What other options did he have other than to wait for all he loved to eventually die.

“ _If_ \--”

The radio crackled to life.

_“Ken-y--mpire--hurry--”_

Son of a bitch.

Kenny was on his feet, picking up the bat as he went and into a full sprint. Stupid Kyle could stupid wait--

Shit--Kyle was falling into pace next to him. Shit. If this _was_ a trap--

 _Shit_. He didn’t have a choice.

“I swear to god, if you hurt even fucking one of them, you know I won’t die until I’ve fucking destroyed you.” Kenny grabbed the walkie-talkie from his pocket, “Stan? Are you still there?”

There was nothing but crackles in response.

Kenny picked up the pace.

And then felt his legs move out from under him.

“Son of--let me _go_!”

 _Thunk_.

Was the scenery moving by faster?

“Just tell me where to go.” Kyle said.

Kenny gave in. Arguing would take more time.

“Left.”

This was a bad idea. Such a bad idea. If there wasn’t a vampire there now, he was _bringing_ one.

Kenny’s heart just about stopped beating in his chest as they neared Jimbo’s shooting range.

There was the slightest echo of a scream.

“ _Here_!” Kyle didn’t need directing apparently, following the sound urgently.

The tore through the door.

“Stay _away_.” Stan all but screamed, standing between the beast and Shelly.

“But I brought apples.”

Kyle dropped him.

Kenny’s bum hit the ground with a deafening thud that brought the attention of the entire room towards them and Kenny held his breath in apprehension of what would happen next.

“God fucking _dammit_ Butters, what the fuck are you doing here?”


	6. Chapter 6

One witness to the crime.

Some stories aren't told

The way her words whispered to him from beyond the veil.

The secrets and laughter they shared. The boy had known she was different. New. Beautiful. He could recognize absurdity.

But hers was a charm few could deny. Her laughter tickled his dreams, her pleas for help kept him awake.

To his mind it became simple. One tiny favor for the woman he would grant anything.

Jimmy Valmer’s parents weren't home when it happened.

His next-door neighbor was the one to hear his last scream.

Flesh dragged against pavement. A trail of blood away, away,  _ away _ , and into the very edge.

There and only there a perfect smile shines under the moonlight while reality is torn apart.

Our witness flees.

\--

Disentangling a situation involving Butters Leopold Stotch was never an easy task under any context. With a cluster of terrified humans who were quite insistently throwing apples at them?

And then there was Kenny.

Kenny who he’d only  _ barely _ managed to get to hear him out. Currently glaring at him like this was some sort of planned coordinated assault.

Which, honestly, was a little insulting. If he was going to plan a double cross, it definitely wouldn't involve Butters or a fucking basket of apples.

This was the exact opposite of how he wanted this to go.

“--but I brought them apples.” Butters complained from the corner Kyle had him quarantined while Kenny attempted to calm down the hysterical humans.

“That’s great and all but I don’t think they wanted apples.” Kyle was trying very hard not to look towards the human called Stan. There were only further complications to be found there.

Butters’ absent smile fell for the first time Kyle could remember.

“Golly, they’re a lot of spoilsports, aren’t they?”

That was the problem with Butters.

He could have predicted that Butters was leaning towards the humans. He just didn’t want to coordinate with Butters because his allegiance to the plight was probably as fickle as his allegiance to his fellow kin.

Entirely and completely dependent on his mood.

He might currently hold remorse for the slaughtered, but who knew how’d he feel five minutes from now.

“I think I ate a little of that one,” Butters commented mildly, gesturing in Stan’s direction.

“ _ Yeah,  _ okay,” Kyle placed himself bodily between Butters and the group, “Probably best not to remind him about that.”

“Why?” The truly amazing aspect of the question wasn’t that Butters would ask it, but rather the entirely guiltless way he did so.

Kyle closed his eyes momentarily and took a deep breath before answering, “Funny enough, they don’t like being eaten.”

“Oh. Hamburgers.” Butters craned over Kyle’s shoulder to the group and called out, “Golly, sorry about tryin’ to eat you!”

**“Ea t a di c k!”**

Kyle rubbed his temples. The nearly incomprehensible babble of the humans was giving him a headache. That on top of his already quite persistent _Stotch_ _Headache_ and he was a rather unhappy person.

“Do ya think it liked my apology?”

Honesty was for people who didn’t believe in peace of mind. “Sure, Butters. He probably loved the apology.”

Butters beamed in return and sometimes Kyle had to wonder if the meaning of sarcasm had flown entirely over his head and landed somewhere in a barren desert.

“Kyle.”

Kyle turned instinctively at the sound of Kenny’s voice, the humans were quieter now, still packed away on the opposite end of the room and watching apprehensively. Kenny alone stepped forward.

He was lost for words so he just nodded in acknowledgment, waiting for whatever Kenny was preparing to say.

“Do something stupid.” Strangely enough, commands oddly suited the timber of Kenny’s voice. The grim manner he made the demand didn’t quite suit the words themselves though.

“...Excuse me?” Kyle tried, brain trying to catch up. One of the female humans was giving him the evil eye. The words just didn’t suit a single emotion within the tense room.

Kenny sighed, “They won’t believe your sincerity,” Kenny’s tone indicated that he wasn’t entirely sold either, “And since it’s not like you guys can have a conversation to work shit out, you should do something universally understandable to prove your intent.”

“...Okay?”

“So, do something stupid.” Kenny shrugged, “You’re a giant bundle of pride and asshole, right? Show you’re committed by acting like an idiot.”

There were a plethora of problems with the request. Starting with the smirk Kenny was trying so hard to suppress but  _ Kyle could totally see it _ .

“Should I do something silly?” Butters asked.

The chorus of  _ no _ echoed pretty loudly. It started with Kenny and the others echoed after him with no hesitation. Kyle noticed that Stan reached for his neck self-consciously. Ah, so they were definitely remembered.

Kenny might have a point.

The girl from before was still glaring murder at him.

Kenny definitely had a point.

Kyle’s new biggest problem was his own terrible imagination. In that, and he would freely admit to this being among his flaws, he didn’t really have much of one.

“What kind of stupid thing?” He wasn’t exactly praised for his creativity.

Kenny shrugged and  _ oh _ his lip was  _ definitely _ quirking upwards. What an asshole. “Dance? Walk on your hands? Pick your nose?”

“I hate all of those options. And you.” Kyle crossed his arm contemptuously, noticed it wasn’t earning him points with the peanut gallery, and uncrossed them self-consciously.

“ _ Great _ !” Kenny clapped his hands, “So you should do all of them!”

“I can’t walk on my hands, asshole!”

“The other two then.” Kenny winked, voice lowering so it didn’t carry well. “Humans need laughter to survive. We can’t stay broody bitches all day long.”

He wasn’t going to pick his damn nose. Not with that  _ horribly _ arrogant look on Kenny’s face. He didn’t have to take this. He could just herd Butters out of here, let the humans fend for themselves, and figure out how to handle Leslie on his own.

Stan’s hand was still on his neck.

The girl with hatred in her eyes had fists white with the pressure of her own restraint.

The two he recognized as Kenny’s siblings were crouched by a stash of weapons looking apprehensive.

The mostly unfamiliar mass of humans were all in some form of fight or flight, terror edging the corners of their eyes despite Kenny’s jovial tone.

Fine.

He’d play along but he  _ wasn’t going to pick his damn nose _ .

With three powerful strides, he closed most of the distance between himself and Kenny. He didn’t miss the way the humans collectively flinched back.

Kenny alone remained entirely unaffected, at least externally. Closer to his eyes the unease of the unknown was sparkling behind blue.

Kyle held out a hand.

Kenny put up his bid for the most clueless being in the room by staring at it as though it might grow fangs and bite.

Kyle rolled his eyes, “You said to dance.”

“Alone.” Kenny amended. “I meant dance  _ alone _ . Or with your buddy. I don’t know, pick your nose? That’s a one-man project.”

Yeah, he wasn’t having any more of this. His ears were already burning from the intensity of the stares around him. This was mortifying.

The only thing more embarrassing than doing something silly in front of a crowd was being rejected as well.

With one motion he took Kenny’s hand and pulled him forward, finding him surprisingly compliant.

“I don’t dance, dude,” Kenny muttered but he also didn’t pull away.

“Good. That makes two of us.”

And Kyle began the simple two-step his mother had drilled into his brain with her constant insistence on etiquette in high society. Making sure to pace himself slowly in order to avoid--

“ _ Ow-- _ you stepped on my foot.”

Kyle’s gaze was focused a mile away, “No, I didn’t.”

“You just did it again!” Kenny complained.

“Are you sure you didn’t move your foot under mine?” He wasn’t going to look at Kenny or the crowd of onlookers. He wasn’t going to look at anything. This nightmare would end soon. He just had to  _ endure _ .

“Oh my god, you have  _ no _ rhythm.”

Kyle was aiming for his foot this time but Kenny dodged expertly, light on his own feet and pulling Kyle along as he went.

“You started this,” Kyle grumbled, renewing his efforts and finding it endlessly frustrating that when he was actually  _ aiming _ for Kenny, he consistently missed.

Also, he was pretty sure Kenny was leading now, which was also mortifying.

He was positive he could hear snickers from the peanut gallery as well.

“Yeah, but I didn’t think you  _ sucked _ .” Kenny had that special smarmy grin he always had when he thought he was being  _ just hilarious _ . Kyle aimed for a leg this time, maybe if he swept Kenny’s feet out from under him, it would count as a dip. His plot was unsuccessful. “I thought you’d just do a quick cabbage patch or someshit.”

There was definitely a murmur happening from the ever-watching eyes but Kyle dared not look over. He wasn’t going to be able to face anyone in this room after this. He prolonged it for no other reason other than the knowledge that when it ended, so did his pride.

It had absolutely nothing to do with the way look in Kenny’s eyes was loosening or the warmth of hands in his own. It definitely had nothing to do with the first sincere smile he’d seen on the other’s face.

“What the hell is a cabbage patch?” Kyle found his own legs swept in a quick dip and hated the exhilaration of it. “And I  _ don’t _ suck.”

“Dude, you totally suck.” Kenny promised. “And holyshit, you vamps really need to get out more. Or less, actually, bad things happen when you get out. Could you maybe get out more but also  _ skip _ the murderous armageddon thing?”

“I’m feeling pretty murderous at the moment,” Kyle said.

Some of the sounds in the background had evolved to full on laughter and he  _ definitely _ didn’t miss the way Butters’ own giggles had joined in.

He was the laughingstock of the entire place.

But that was Kenny’s plan.

He searched the blue of his eyes. How was it he’d taken a disastrous situation and turned it on its head with one ridiculous suggestion? Suddenly it made more sense how they’d been eluded and outsmarted by one ridiculous immortal boy.

“You really don’t hold back,” Kyle said.

Kenny cocked his head to the side in confusion. Kyle hated that he noticed the clean expanse of skin it revealed. “What’s that mean?”

“You have good instincts and you act on them without hesitation.” Kyle lowered his eyes, away from temptation and guilt. “It’s admirable.”

“Holy shit, did you just  _ compliment _ me.” Oh that smart-ass grin was going to haunt his nightmares. He tried halfheartedly to get Kenny’s foot again, “ _ Please _ tell me someone recorded that! It’s gotta go in the history books! Holy shit, bitchy momma’s boy over here just said I’m  _ admirable _ .”

“It won’t happen again.” Kyle said flatly.

Kenny laughed and it was wholly unfair how nice the sound was.

The laughter from the peanut gallery had faded though, Kyle noticed belatedly, just before a severe voice rang out in disgust.

**“A lri ght loveb ir ds br e a k it up.”**

And like that the brief spell was broken. Kyle hastily pulled his hands away from Kenny’s and backed away.

Thus welcoming home the guarded scorn in Kenny’s eyes. Saying goodbye to clear blue expanse of delight.

Belatedly, Kyle realized he’d actually backed away  _ closer _ to the cluster of humans, as now he had a full view of Butters’ expression behind Kenny.

He was never in his entire life going to live this down. The look in his companion's eyes promised an  _ eternity _ of well-meaning teasing. Or at least until Butters grew bored of it.

Unpredictable crazy bastard.

Something sharp poked his back and he stiffened.

**“G ive me one reason I sh ou ldn ‘t.”**

Kenny’s eyes were locked on whoever was behind him, “Shelly…”

**“Those things k i lle d my d a d! And y ou ‘re d a n cing with i t! You’re cr azy!”**

He felt the rise of tension behind him, it was doubtless that each of them had lost  _ someone _ in this. He saw the look shift something in Butters’ own face as well.

_ Us _ vs  _ Them _ . A simple ideology. So simple, easy, and painless he’d embraced it completely.

It was a narrative Leslie had sewn into minds without meeting a single resistance. An easy ideology.

Leslie needed to be stopped. For everyone's sakes. He needed to live through this to see that through. And if ‘Shelly’ killed him, there was no telling how Butters would respond.

He could join the humans merrily over Kyle’s corpse or rip them all limb from limb. He could also just wander away aimlessly.

Kenny wasn’t looking at him but rather to the girl behind him. His eyes held an understanding even if his stance was disapproving.

Maybe he would diffuse the situation in order to avoid casualties but the truth was ultimately there.

Kenny wouldn’t protect him if it came down to choosing a side and fighting for it.

It didn’t make sense to expect him to, but it still hurt to  _ know _ .

Kyle knew the loss of his life would mean nothing to anyone here. A relief to most.

And like a punch to the gut he knew that was how Randy Marsh’s life had ended.

Biting his tongue to hold in everything he would like to say, Kyle kneeled down in obvious surrender, the sharp object following him downwards.

With one last look at Kenny’s penetrating gaze, he closed his eyes and awaited his sentence.

The second time he’d placed his life in a human’s hands of his own volition. It wasn’t getting easier.

There was silence broken only by the tremble behind him.

**“Y ou do n’ t g e t to do that!”** Her voice was strong, but hindered by more emotion. It cut through the buzz that robbed him of understanding.  **“You took my** **_parents_ ** **! You tried to kill my brother!”**

He didn’t apologize.

He couldn’t. Even if she could understand, it ultimately wouldn’t mean anything. It wouldn’t bring back her father and it wouldn’t change what he had done.

He couldn’t express his remorse in words. There was a sea of blood drowning his mind.

“Shelly, he’s our best shot.”

Kyle didn’t look up.

**“I don’t car e!”** She was definitely sobbing, a wretched and broken sound that wracked her body and caused the weapon against his spine to quiver.  **“So what if we all di e?! What is there to live for anymore?!”**

The sentiment stung with a truth Kyle hadn’t been wanting to think about just yet.

The remains of the town--the remains of the human's society, the handful of survivors, the uncountable grief... even if all went exceptionally well and he was able to stop Leslie and make it right,  _ somehow make it right _ , was there anything left for them to live for?

Was there any possibility of recovery?

The sharp object lowered away from him and he assumed something had occurred via nonverbal cues, because Shelly’s sobs were muffled by something. Kyle dared to open his eyes.

He couldn’t look behind him but he could hear someone ushering Shelly away, gasping sobs fading into another room.

He could taste the despair in the room.

He’d caused this. He was part of those who created loss beyond grief.

He met Kenny’s eyes as the sounds of Shelly’s hurt faded to silence.

Complicated was too simple a word to express the look in Kenny’s face. He looked away from Kyle hurriedly and turned his attention to Butters.

Ow.

“What about you, crazy-town? Where do you stand in this?” Kenny asked.

Kyle focused intently on the exchange. He wanted to know as well.

Butters smiled and it was one of the many variations that told tales of delightful insincerity, a variation that allowed his fangs to shine in the dim light, “I don’t like Leslie.”

Kyle wrinkled his brows and stood, hesitation weighing down his body and cautious he might cause alarm behind him, “That’s all? You don’t like Leslie?”

“Oh, and I like the humans. They’re funny. Look at that one!” Kyle followed his finger towards one of the two clad in black. “His eyes are funny!”

The human in question just quirked a brow and scoffed.

“Oh lord help me…” Kyle groaned rubbing his temples, Kenny was sending him a  _ look _ and jabbed a thumb at Butters.

Moments away from a person breaking down and Butters was already making a foolery of the entire room.

“He  _ always _ like that?” Kenny asked.

“There’s a reason I went to you before I went to him.” Kyle said. There were too many reasons to list in honesty.

“Care to illuminate me, dude.” Kenny pressed, which made sense. Kyle would want to know exactly how insane Butters as well.

“Aw gee, I know why that is!”

Both Kenny and Kyle jumped at the words, Butters had closed the distance between himself and Kenny to place two hands on the other's shoulders.

“He’s your sweetheart!”

Kyle could scream. He wasn’t going to. It wouldn’t help matters and it would be on a long list of reasons he wished he was  _ anywhere _ else right now. He wasn’t letting his eyes stray away from that stupid smile either. Maybe he could find the corner that said Butters was just fucking with them.

He had no such luck. And he definitely didn’t like Butters hovering over Kenny like that.

He made sure to speak extra slowly, enunciating everything carefully to  _ ensure _ Butters couldn’t possibly misunderstand. “No, Butters. He’s an ally. Sort of. We have a truce.”

Butters giggled, “Aww, no need to be shy! I saw the way you looked at im’! You’re sweet on ‘im!”

“I am  _ not _ , Kenny is an  _ ally _ . Just that.” Kyle waved his hands to hammer down his point. “Don’t make this weird.”

It was already weird, he could feel the atmosphere shifting and he couldn’t tell where it was going. The world was out of his control, outside of his abilities and comprehension.

“I think he’s sweet on you too! He looked so spellbound dancin’ with you.” Butters said.

“Is it like a vampire thing to talk about a person like they aren’t there?” Kenny interrupted.

“We’re not va--.” Kyle began.

“Sure.” Kenny quipped, shrugging his shoulders out Butters’ grip. “Besides, we’re past the sweetheart stage, what with the sex dungeon and all.”

Oh dear lord.

The combo of Butters and Kenny was a  _ nightmare _ waiting to happen.

**“S e x dung eon?!”**

Kyle whirled to look at the crowd pleadingly. This was too much, he would  _ not _ accept that accusation. “There was  _ no _ sex dungeon!” They probably didn’t even understand his vehement denial but he couldn’t let the accusation hang.

He had been so right. This was the funeral of his pride. The farewell to his dignity. The end of his self-respect. Even the small ones were giving him that terrible raised eyebrow laden  _ judgment _ .

“Golly, Kyle, you can’t go lockin’ your beau in a sex dungeon!” Butters chastised.

“Butters, I swear to all things--”

“It’s alright, Kyle.” Kenny pat his back, “No one’s judging you for the whole chains thing.”

“...Then why bring them up?”

“Because  _ I’m _ judging you for the chains thing.” Kenny was such a shitthead.

It was another strange spell on the scene and he wondered if Butters had triggered it on purpose. There were still cautious and hateful eyes, but the tension had dissolved as his dignity was torn away.

They couldn’t summon fear anymore. Only caution and distrust, perhaps anger.

It was like the spells Leslie could cast on a crowd and yet--

He didn’t feel compelled--not in the mindless way that escaped his own understanding of a situation. She inspired a response he had no recollection or comprehension of. She was everything and anything she needed to be for a given scene. An actress without a face.

A damsel or a fierce leader. The politician or the commoner.

How many faces did she have? Were  _ any _ of them her true face?

Kenny was flexible and quick-witted but he was always  _ Kenny _ . A consistent being given shape through identity.

“I think that’s enough for now.” Kenny rested a hand on Kyle’s shoulder. “I need to talk to everyone alone for a minute. Can you take Coco-Puffs for a walk while I work this out?”

“How long?” Kyle asked.

Kenny shook his head, “I’ll come to you. There’s still some shit we need to iron out.” he hesitated, only a moment, “How far are you actually willing to take this?”

Kyle didn’t have the time to formulate an answer. Butters placed a feather grip on his shoulder and began dragging him away.

“C’mon, Kyle, don’t be clingy, ya don’t wanna make yer honey hate ya!”

He would someday in some reality have his revenge on Butters Stotch. For now to avoid the mountain of other complications he allowed himself to be pulled out into the moonlight where Butters was just about  _ skipping _ .

“I think I’ll ask the funny human how he does that thing around his eyes. I like it.” Butters commented.

“Fantastic.” Kyle said, taking a seat on a bench not far from the delipidated building where the humans were amidst who knows what sort of discussion.

Butters was taking his time to stretch, his easy-going posture a constant reminder that he could choose just about anything from here without dithering. He could take lives or save them.

What  _ really _ was driving Butters? Or was it really the nothing reasons he released as easy as breath.

“Have you thought about it?” The serious lilt to the otherwise cheerful voice caught him off guard.

“Hm?”

“What your fella asked you before we left.” Butters elaborated, face unreadable but eyes holding a strange intensity.

“I’m really going to have to insist you stop inferring a relationship between myself and the human.” Kyle said, “There is no truth to it.”

Butters hummed and it was the little tune he saved for moments where he would pointedly ignore instruction, Kyle sighed.

“And the question?” Butters asked.

“What question?”

Butters turned and his eyes shown in the moonlight, a glint of danger, “How far you willing to take this?”

“What do you mean?” Kyle asked.

“Will you kill Leslie?”

Kyle stiffened. Every pore of his body screamed to rip off Butters’ head for merely suggesting it.

It wasn’t natural.

A rage inside him that ripped monstrously at his ability to make restrain himself. Crawling beneath his flesh, a constant reminder that Leslie held the strings of emotions in his mind on her puppet strings. Slithering inside his ears and pulling his emotions wherever she desired.

He was her  _ tool _ . It gave him goosebumps.

Butters didn’t relent. Perhaps he didn’t notice Kyle’s unease or he didn’t care.

“What about Michael? Or Bebe?” Butters said, “None of them are going to just  _ let _ you put an end to this. Are you willing to kill your friends, your kin, for this? For creatures who only spared your life because you are useful to them momentarily?”

Kyle swallowed.

In his mind, a simple landscape had presented itself. Find Kenny, make a plan, stop Leslie, and go  _ home _ . A set of goals to achieve and not one for how they could be potentially attained.

Butters continued mercilessly. “Are you doing this because you believe in the cause or because you’re dancing in someone else’s palms?”

When had Butters voice gotten so sharp?

“Are you replacing Leslie’s influence with the human boy?”

Kyle’s hands clenched and he longed for a word to throw back. Something to tell Butters he was  _ wrong _ .

But he himself had seen parallels and made comparisons.

“Golly, Kyle, are you really all that committed to this?”

“That’s what I want to know about you!” Kyle shot back, ready and happy to shift the focus, “What are you  _ doing _ here? Why are you helping? It can’t be because of  _ makeup _ . Do you really want to help them or are you just doing this until you get bored again?”

Butters clicked his tongue, wagging his finger in disapproval, “That’s awful rude of ya to say, Kyle, I asked first after all.”

“I don’t  _ know _ .” Kyle admitted, fingers digging into the wood of the bench and glaring fiercely, “I only know what we’ve been doing is  _ wrong _ and it has to  _ stop _ .”

“Will you spill blood to make it happen?” Butters held out a wrist and carefully opened a cut with a fang, blood spilling forth as proof of his life, “Blood of those you’ve known your entire life? It’s a whole lot easier ta’ view the humans as an enemy, ya know.”

The blood fell to the ground, a singular drop splashing the hard terrain.

“If you have to choose between savin’ those lil creatures and a friend, what will you choose?”

“I haven’t thought about it.” Kyle admitted, hating how powerless it made him feel.

“Now’s the time then!” Butters chirped, putting pressure on his self-inflicted injury with a bright smile.

“And you?” Kyle had to know, while Butters seemed lucid at least.

“I think that it makes no difference.”

Kyle waited for elaboration but none came. He didn’t feel like Butters would clarify even if he continued to ask.

“I think your honey is awfully bright, ya know.” Butters commented lightly, “Thinkin’ ahead. Like, what are they gonna eat? All those little things. I think he’s thinkin’ about ‘em.”

“He’s really not…” Kyle gave up, the more he denied it the more persistently Butters would allude to a romance. He changed tactics, “Why do you even think that about us?”

“Well, ya did dance with him.”

“That was different and you know it.”

“Was it?” Butters asked. “You’re not a soft person, not so far as I’ve known you, but you’re awfully soft on him.

“That’s...it’s different.” It’s guilt and shame. It’s anger and remorse. It’s the way his world was rocked off of its center.

“It is different. You’re sweet on him.” Butters shouldn’t be allowed to say things. Ever. Kyle was making a new rule.

“I…respect what he’s done. I can’t be  _ sweet _ on someone I don’t even know.” Kyle said.

“Sure, ya can.” the world inside Butters skull must be an empty one indeed, “There aren’t any rules to affection, ya know that right?”

There should be, Kyle wanted to argue. It was a losing battle though, trying to talk sense into a man who had long since lost his touch with reality.

“Look. He’s not…”  _ An option _ . Even on the  _ wild _ assumption that Butters was correct in his  _ ridiculous _ allegations, there was an impossibility to anything approximating romance, “We’re not like that.”

“You’re avoiding the real question, ya know. What do you feel?”

Kyle didn’t have an answer.

He allowed Butters to wander to a fallen structure and looked up at the endless moonlight that had once excited him upon entering this world.

The moon offered no answers.

\---

“So!”

What was with Kenny and his tendency to flounce? Kyle watched the human settle himself onto the bench with no regard for etiquette.

It was hard to say how much time had really passed. The moon remained unmoving in the night sky, not a single signal to the passage of time. Kyle could have sat here for hours and there was no real way of accounting for any of it. In a strange way, it was like the time in this town was at a permanent standstill.

Yet, even with time paused, he could probably sit here for days and be no closer to an answer.

“Tell me about your diet.”

“Excuse me?”

Kenny twirled his wrist dismissively, “What do you eat, other than people. Or is it just people. If we’re going to work together, this is going to be important information.” Kenny held up his fingers to tick off concerns, “Have you ever gone hungry? If so, what happens? How long can a vampire--”

“wampire.”

“--that’s gay.  _ Vampire _ biology hold up without sustenance, etcetera.”

It was a reasonable question. Questions. Things that Kyle should have probably spent some time considering himself while he sat out in the cold.

And yet he was entirely at a loss for how to respond when something previously labeled as  _ food _ lodged them.

“There are other things in our diet.” This just wasn’t going to be comfortable no matter how he went about it, “I haven’t really seen any of them since we arrived here though. Humans are--I, uh--I’d never had a human before coming here.”

He did not want to continue with this conversation at all.

“What’s your usual food group then?”

Why was Kenny so completely flippant about this? He couldn’t be the only one uncomfortable with the topic.

Against all odds though, Kenny looked as careless as possible. Open to hearing any answer.

Maybe this was another way he influenced opinions. Created a sense of comfort with his nonchalance.

“Our normal… it’s something similar to humans. A bit… hairier? I don’t think you have them here but we call them possums.”

Kenny snorted and tried to regain his composure only to begin laughing uncontrollably.

“ _ You eat possums _ ?” He gasped.

Kyle’s eyes knit together, “Yes? Do you have them here?”

Kenny held up a hand to request time while he tried and failed a great many times to put a stop to his own mirth.

The laughter was nice, it wasn’t the beautiful tickle of Leslie’s perfection, it was full of snorts, gasps, and knee-slapping.

He was still comparing Kenny to Leslie.

Why did he keep doing that? Was Butters correct that he was just replacing one influence for another?

“Okay,” Kenny managed, “I’m pretty sure we’re thinking of different things. You said possums were similar to humans?”

“In size. And in appearance to an extent. They don’t really have a language… though…” Kyle sighed and rubbed his temples, “Or at least I hope they don’t.”

He already had an immeasurable amount of guilt to deal with over the past couple weeks. He didn’t need his  _ literal _ lifetime to be a continued nightmare.

“So no tails?”

Kyle gave him a look, “Why would they have tails? What are possums like here?”

“Uhhh… I’d compare it to another animal but I really don’t know what we have the same. They’re much smaller though, don’t look like humans, and they have tails. Four legs and twitchy noses, that sort of thing.”

“Oh…like a rat?”

“ _ Exactly _ ! Except bigger.”

“That sounds horrid.”

Kenny looked affronted, “ _ I _ think they’re cute! I used to have one as a pet!” He held his chest dramatically, “Mr. Possy, you will be missed.”

Again, the mood was moving to Kenny’s pace. He wanted to keep this conversation light, so it was light. He wanted to antagonize Kyle in the ‘dungeon’, so he succeeded. He wanted to dissolve the tension inside the human base, so he did.

Was Kyle really just dancing in the palm of his hand like a puppet?

No.

Kyle moved his gaze over the desolated city. Whether or not he was being used, again, always perhaps, he needed to put an end to this.

It was more important to fix things.

...Wasn’t the grandiose sense of purpose how he fell into pace with Leslie to begin with though? Everything she said and did painted a picture depicting reality as she wanted him to see it.

Which reality was real?

“Why the long face?” Kenny asked.

Too many reasons to list.

“I don’t have an answer.” He looked to his hands and they felt small and weak despite all other evidence, “I don’t know how far I can go, I don’t know what it is to go hungry, I don’t know how I’ll respond if I have to choose between you humans and my companions.”

The heavy silence weighed on his hands like lead weights and he wondered if he’d ever be able to lift them again. Would he be able to gain the strength? Each finger felt the mass of gravity disproportionate to the rest of his being.

“That’s okay.”

Kyle snapped up to a surprisingly severe expression.

“We’re not friends, Kyle.” Kenny shrugged, “We’re not even comrades. We currently have a common goal. That’s the beginning, middle, and end of it. If I have to choose between you and anyone back there, I’d kill you myself.”

The words knotted Kyle’s stomach as easily as they cleared his head.

They were honest.

It was a promise made without hesitation and full of intent.

“I can’t expect what I wouldn’t do.” Kenny said, “I believe you when you say you intend to help us.”

Kyle could hear more words unspoken, “...But?”

“That’s as far as this goes. I don’t forgive you or your kind for any of this. I just don’t think more murderous genocidal fuckery is going to get us anywhere.”

“That’s… fair…”

Kyle wasn’t sure he would be as capable of an even-minded assessment if he were in Kenny’s shoes. No, he was entirely positive he wouldn’t. If tested like this, he would have chosen to attack.

Was that just another sign he was a monster? Or simply a personality flaw?

Was it really a flaw or was Kenny actually just too emotionally unattached from his decisions?

“...You remind me of Leslie.”

Kenny’s expression had apparently saved true disgust for this moment, “Excuse me, did you just compare me to the ultimate baddie?”

Kyle shook his head and returned to looking at his hands. Strange. They felt lighter.

“You have a way of moving people. Manipulating them to do your bidding and follow the pace you set. Leslie is the same.”

“Is this a good comparison or is this your way of calling me an asshole?”

“I don’t know.” He laced his fingers together, “I feel like you have to be different. What I’m doing  _ has _ to be right this time. But I thought I was right last time as well.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“Excuse me?”

“Why did you kidnap me?” Kenny asked.

Well, at least this was a question he knew the answer to, “You could talk. It didn’t make sense with what I’d been told. Leslie wouldn’t provide answers so I had to find out for myself.”

“There you go.” Kenny pat his back and the unexpected touch almost caused him to topple over, “You might be a giant asshole monster with debatable morals and a terrible appetite, an awful stick in the mud, completely lacking in a sense of humor, totally awkward, and a weird kinky motherfucker with a chain fetish-”

“This is your argument, really?”

“-- _ but _ you ask questions.” Kenny shrugged, “I could be manipulating you but it wouldn’t last. Not with your tenacious obsession for answers. The truth and shit, learning something new every day. It’s probably your best quality.”

He couldn’t answer.

_ “Why don’t you just accept what you’re told? God, you’re such a pain when you get like this.” _

He couldn’t quite breathe.

“You okay there, dude?”

“I’m…fine.”

Sometimes words could turn the world upside down.

He felt like his had just gone through a spin cycle.

“You look a little nauseous. Is it  _ that _ traumatizing that I complimented you?”

“No… I just…” Kyle shrugged, “I was surprised. And your logic doesn’t hold up, this entire situation is an example of the horrible crap that can happen if I remain manipulated for long enough.”

“Then ask more questions,” he said it like it was such a simple solution.

Kenny’s feet were kicking the air in a rhythmic swinging motion. He could see them beyond his own clasped hands and he wondered if it was out of anxiety or nonchalance.

“And maybe hold off on killing people until  _ after _ you find answers. You know, just in case.”

Kyle gave a mirthless laugh, “I’ll make a note of that.”

“Baby steps, my dude.”

“How the hell are we going to resolve anything with baby steps though?” he risked another look into Kenny’s face.

There was no conflict there.

“By being motherfucking badasses.”

“...That is not a solid way of planning your course of action.”

Kenny’s legs stopped mid-swing and were brought to fold up on the bench so he could sit crossed legged.

“You’re right. It’s not.” Kenny’s eyes bore into his own, and in the gentle rays of moonlight the conviction within stole his breath, “So we need to plan. We need to find a way to get through this without endangering them, without testing your loyalties, and before Leslie notices you’ve defected.”

“You make it sound easy.” Kyle huffed out a breath, finding air again.

“Hey, we’ve got me.” He patted his chest proudly in pure bravado, “And you.” A finger jabbed Kyle’s chest. “And our dancing is pretty dreadful so I think we can get the world quaking in its boots.”

“And how does that follow?”

Strange he hadn’t noticed how Kenny’s smirk could be so mesmerizing.

“Because we’ll be stepping on them. With gusto.”

It bubbled out of him before he had time to consider it. A choked laugh he hadn’t even expected.

“You’re ridiculous. Completely ridiculous.”

Kenny winked, “I’ll take that as a compliment. Now grab your eavesdropping buddy, we’re going to need to work out how this shit is going to work.”

“Aw, hamburgers, how did you know I was here?”

Kenny looked into the shadows Butters had melted in from, “Lucky guess. What’s your deal, cocoa puffs?”

Kyle always counted it as a bad thing when Butters smiled like that. “I don’t like the sun.”

“Neat. I’m not a fan of the moon, what does that have to do with anything?”

Butters hummed and tapped his lip thoughtfully, “But if you’re not a fan of the moon, why did you take it from us?”

Kenny’s face twisted in confusion, “Yo, dipshit, you buttheads are the one who took the damn sun. Don’t try to lay that one on us. If you want the fucking moon, take it and go home.”

“Golly, is that yet another deception?” Butters looked towards Kyle.

Was this for his benefit? Reading Butters intentions was a dangerous game of Russian Roulette.

“If the humans were capable of taking the moon, I would think they’d have been able to fight back better,” Kyle answered.

It was a question that had haunted his mind since arriving. Every attempt to question Leslie on the matter had been disrupted or dodged.

There had been no explanation for the situation in the sky other than  _ the humans did it _ .

Nothing about how it could be solved or how the humans had managed such a feat, tangling the two worlds into a mess.

Kenny had fallen into a brief thoughtful silence, “Is that why you stupid assholes are here? Too much fucking sunlight?”

Butters quirked his head to the side, “It burns. I don’t like it. And it’s  _ awfully _ rude to use such crude language.”

Kyle decided it would be best to cut in before shit got out of hand, “Leslie said the humans were responsible for it. She never said anything else about it.”

“...And here I’d figured you dickheads were the reason the sun doesn’t rise.” Kenny rubbed his chin, “Okay, Leslie definitely knows  _ something _ . We’re going to need a plan. And as much information as possible. What  _ exactly _ has Vamp-lord McBitch been blaming on us?”

The list was long enough to warrant a secondary list, which also evolved into a third one, and it struck Kyle as absurd the truly astounding number of things Leslie had managed to convince the public of, himself included.

Humans were apparently responsible for everything from the neverending sunlight all the way down to higher taxes.

Kenny looked impressed over some of it.

“What’s a fergle?” Kenny asked.

“You know, I’m not actually sure. But according to Leslie, you’re responsible for its extinction.”

“That’s fair.”Kenny shrugged, “We’re not really great at nature preservation. Though I’m pretty sure I’d remember if we killed off something with that weird a name.”

Kyle would have continued but he paused at the thoughtful expression on Kenny’s face.

“Hey… so, did you even know what a human was before Leslie started blaming us for global warming?”

Butters stole the answer, “In stories and whatnot, like legends of awful creatures.” He invaded Kenny’s personal space with a smile, “Sort of like your  _ vampire _ myths. Ain’t that awful funny?”

Kenny tapped the bench thoughtfully, ignoring Butters.... Butters-ness. “So, what we do know. We come from very different worlds. Leslie is a master of propaganda and seems to have been aware of humans long before our worlds started doing the nasty, and the best way to put a stop to this is to undo whatever the fuck linked our worlds.”

Kyle nodded. It made sense. If they could remove the connection, it was likely that the natural disasters would cease, “That’s why we need to stop Leslie.”

Kenny shook his head, “Hold your horses there. There’s no point in killing Leslie if we don’t know if it was even her that bashed our two worlds together. It would just make a buncha angry vampires angry- _ confused _ vampires. And I, for one, do not want to deal with that.”

“Then what can we do?” Butters had decided to seat himself in the space between Kyle and Kenny as he spoke. Kyle wondered if it would derail the conversation if he politely tossed him off the bench.

“We need more information.” Kyle affirmed, “We need to figure out what caused the rift to open between our worlds.”

“Where did you guys come from?” Kenny asked, “Like, what part of town? Or did you just sprout out of the ground randomly like daisies.”

Butters giggled, “That’s stupid.”

Kyle felt an elbow nudge him gently and shot Butters a perplexed look before answering Kenny’s question, “There’s a lake just short of town. To my knowledge, most of us came from there.”

Kenny’s irritated bench tap increased in pace, “Okay. That’s probably  _ where _ the tear is…the trouble is  _ how _ . It looks like we’re going to need to figure out what Leslie knows.”

Butters nudged Kyle again and he didn’t like it at all, “Golly, how are we gonna do that?”

“We have two options there.” Kenny ticked off fingers as he talked, “First, I can go in as a prisoner and see about getting her to monologue or--”

“I don't want her touching you.” Kyle cut in firmly. The mere idea gave him goosebumps. No matter what happened he didn’t want Kenny’s life in Leslie’s hands.

“-- _ Or _ you two can see what information you can get out of her.”

“We’ll get the information. You’re not going to fall under her possession. It’s too dangerous.”

Kenny regarded him critically, “Dude, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I can’t die. What could she  _ really _ do to me?”

A chill ran down Kyle’s spine, “No. Absolutely not.”

They glared at one another tersely. It was dumb but a blind panic flashed red behind Kyle’s eyes at the thought.  _ Danger _ it repeated, forever on loop.

“Well, golly, how are we going to get the information then?” Butters asked, guilelessly as ever. Kyle suspected there was some calculation to the words though, “It’s not like you’ve been successful thus far. And she has you wrapped around her finger an’ all.”

It stung to hear, but it was true. He couldn’t be trusted around Leslie and she was masterful at evading his questions.

“I’ll figure it out.” Kyle said, “Just--trust me.”

He didn’t trust himself. He didn’t feel confident. He just knew in the very deepest corner of his core that he couldn’t allow Kenny to be taken by her.

Kenny let out a loud breath and clapped his hands. “Alrighty then.”

Kyle’s heart skipped a beat as a truly devious grin evolved across the other boy’s face.

“Let's talk tactics to get people to spill.”

___

The walk back to base felt too long.

Butters’ humming while swinging his empty apple basket wasn’t helping matters in the least.

“You’re awfully pleased with this situation.” Kyle said.

“Gee, Kyle, aren’t you? I think your sweetheart is starting to warm up to you. He’s awfully smart too, lots of good ideas.”

Although the losing battle to somehow convince Butters he  _ wasn’t _ sweet on the human was a futile one, Kyle still offered a standard denial of the allegations while they walked.

The plan was crazy.

Kyle’s pulse hummed with the anxiety of deception. He wasn’t a confident liar.

Was Butters?

_ “One step at a time.” _

Kenny had a way of making things seem far too simple. Too easily dealt with.

This wasn’t going to be easy.

Butters hand shot out and tugged his sleeve.

“Someone’s watching us.” Butters’ words were hushed and rushed, Kyle felt a trill of panic.

Who could bring that sort of alarm to his voice?

They were barely within range of the city hall. Were they already discovered?

“Who?” He whispered back.

“Golly, I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure they’re human.”

Were they going to be attacked again? The Marsh sibling’s grief entered his mind and revisited his gut.

“How do you know?” Kyle couldn’t hear, smell, or see anyone. How exactly did Butters track the humans so effectively? It was unreal.

Butters didn’t answer, he was a bit preoccupied ducking to the ground as a projectile wizzed over his head. Kyle’s eyes darted to see where it had come from but all he saw was a nondescript building without windows.

There was a tree, maybe…

“ **That wa s a warning shot!** ”

This voice was one of the clearest Kyle had heard aside from Kenny’s. It honestly hurt his head how well it penetrated his thoughts with its meaning. He tensed while looking where he assumed the human was hidden.

“Can you understand me?” He asked.

This could end badly. Even if they  _ could _ understand each other.

The voice rang out again, this time approaching normalcy in its entirety. Kyle wondered if it was the amount of time away from Leslie or something else causing the ruptured communication.

“ **Barely.** ” She paused, it was a female voice, he could hear that now, “ **You two a** re the ones who helped the bitch escape.”

The interrogator from before. Kyle felt Butters’ hand on his shoulder.

“We…” he didn’t have an excuse, he didn’t want to find one, “What do you want?”

“Better question is why you guys were getting all chummy with Kenny. What are you up to?”

Distantly Kyle could hear the mechanical sound of a weapon being loaded, it wasn’t in the tree. Higher up…?

Butters spoke, “Oh, we’re gonna go home and take Leslie with us. We’re awful tired of the human world, ya know?”

Goddamnit, Stotch never could read a mood.

“What he means,” Kyle side-eyed Butters, “Is we’re not enemies with the humans anymore. We’re working with--”

“Well, would have been a lot easier to do that if you assholes hadn’t helped the bitch escape,” the girl snipped, cutting him off.

Kyle did not think negotiations were going well.

“It was a mistake.” Butters chirped, fingers digging into Kyle’s shoulder, “Ya know how it goes, why, golly, things just look different sometimes and ya get all confused an’ turned around.”

She didn’t speak for a moment but Butters’ grip kept Kyle from filling the silence.

“...And who’s to say you assholes won’t get ‘turned around’ all over again?”

“Golly, I’d hope that doesn’t happen! I rather like you fellas.”

“Butters, she shot at you.”

“She said it was a warning shot, I believe her.”

Kyle’s eyes found the heavens in one plea for common sense that was sure to be muted among the millions of others who also searched for meaning above the stars.

“It doesn’t add up. What do you guys get out of defecting?” She asked. “Why should I trust for  _ one second _ that you’re not about to go back to your base and lead them straight to the others?”

“Why don’t you ask that Kenny fellow?” Butters said. “He seems awfully bright. He must have a good reason for trusting us.

Again a pause, Kyle itched to intervene. It didn’t sit well with him, letting Butters do the talking, hanging back while they discussed it, but the tingle of  _ danger _ on his spine warned him to be patient.

“...Alright.” her voice was slow, calculating, “You two can go. For now. And if you get the opportunity, don’t let that murderous bitch get away. She’s the one who caused all this crap.”

“What do you--”

Butters pulled softly, voice just above a whisper, “I don’t think she means to talk much longer, we ought to get going.”

Kyle let himself be pulled away only because of the dawning realization that this was the person who had managed to kidnap  _ Leslie _ from a well-fortified base and surrounded, injuring Bebe and others in the process.

She wouldn’t be speaking to them unless she had the upper hand.

\---

A good night’s sleep is supposed to make the world look brighter by morning. Settle nerves and reset emotions to an even baseline.

Kyle woke up feeling like someone had taken a sledgehammer to his head. He tried to trace the source of his headache.

It was probably the enormity of it all catching up to him. How could he deal with Leslie? Get answers? Get home? How could he, a nutjob, and a bunch of helpless humans possibly hope to stand a chance?

It was probably the discomfort of the fucking cot. He hated cots. They weren’t beds. He missed his bed. He missed  _ home _ . Goodbye felt so final. He’d refused to say it when he left his mom and brother. He’d refused because it wasn’t goodbye, he wasn’t leaving for good. He was just going on a stupid  _ stupid _ \--he hadn’t said goodbye.

It was probably the dull ache in his stomach that accompanied the desire for a full and complete breakfast. He didn’t think he could remember the last time he’d gone without food for this long. It was senseless. It was stupid. He shouldn’t feel so terrible after just one night of starvation.

It was probably the sight behind his eyelids.

Closing his eyes and there was a cold blue accompanied by a shadowed face.  _ Enemy _ written in the crease between his eyebrows and an unruly tussle of blond hair.

Opening his eyes and there’s the roof. Solitary. Meaningless.

Closing his eyes and there was a bright smile exposed and jovial, eyes lit up with mischief. An affectionate emotion dancing across a flushed face.

Opening his eyes and there’s the wall, blank as his thoughts.

Two faces. One human.

Kyle tried to screw up the strength to stand. They had a limited time to do a lot. To change a lot. To work out a solution to a seemingly impossible problem.

He didn’t feel he could.

He closed his eyes again and the face was covered in blood.

His eyes snapped open and he forced himself into a sitting position, swinging his legs over the edge of the makeshift bed and bringing himself to his feet.

First thing he had to do was find Leslie and get answers. The sooner he did that, the sooner they could regroup, create a feasible plan, and put an end to this.

He exited the would-be living quarters, not for the first time lamenting the less than ideal living situation they were currently enduring.

His mind flashed to the humans huddled in what had once been a shop of some kind and he set his jaw.

Leslie. Everything started and ended with her.

She wasn't in the main hall. Mike was there to shoot him a curious glance but Kyle didn't stay to comment.

Room after room after room and there was no sign of her.

“Kyle! Where has your sweet ass been lately?”

Great. Bebe.

Kyle didn’t slow his stride but she easily attached herself to his side. It was a special talent granted only to the buxom blond. Kyle wasn’t quite sure how she managed it with such efficacy but he’d long since given up questioning it.

“Well?” she pressed.

“Around.” He replied shortly, glancing in a room as they passed by. Still no Leslie.

“If you’re looking for your lady love, she ain’t in the building. No one’s seen her for hours.”

“She’s not--” why did it feel like he was spending more and more of his time lately denying relationships? Kyle sighed, defeated, “Thanks for the heads up.”

“No problem, sugar.” Bebe squeezed his arm, “I’m just happy you’ve calmed down. You were pretty freaked out before. I was worried.”

_ How far are you willing to take this? _

The words resounded inside Kyle’s skull.

Bebe wasn’t a bad person. They’d been friendly acquaintances for the majority of their lives.

Almost as long as he’d known Leslie.

Kyle’s brow wrinkled at the thought.

_ How long have I known Leslie _ ?

He couldn’t place it.

“Bebe-” he started, stopping when he realized he didn’t have a clue how to phrase the question.

“What is it, sugar?”

“Weird question, but when did you meet Leslie?”

There was a strange silence. He wondered if she had the same baffling moment he’d had only a moment prior.

“I’ve always known Leslie?” She didn’t sound like she believed her own words.

Spiders beneath the flesh threatening him with a terrible notion, the concept itself burning with disquiet. Every thought skittering within.

Kyle frowned at the hall ahead. He had dozens of memories about his strong and meaningful relationship with Leslie. Every single one a fuzzy recollection that played behind his eyes.

Compared to recent memories, they felt far off in a way that memories didn’t. He could easily recall the stint in his childhood when Bebe’s tooth had been knocked out in a sledding accident.

His memories concerning Leslie were… _ different _ .

Leslie was real. She had to be real. Why did memories of her feel so unsubstantiated? Why did she feel like a daydream warped by his own mind.

“Why do you ask?” Bebe interrupted his thoughts, a tension hugging her tone.

He felt it. An idea just barely beginning to blossom in his mind, pushing his guts to the ground.  _ Danger _ , flashing red in the corner of his eyes,  _ danger _ .

“No reason,” he lied.

He was going to need to lie a lot.

A dull ache in his stomach weighed his body down as he walked.

He wondered if Bebe felt the spiders too.

\--

It was hours before he gave up his search, returning to the privacy of his temporary room.

Or what should have been privacy. What sort of world would it be if his expectations were met? A strange one indeed because there was Butters seated on his bed with a basket of apples, looking far too comfortable in someone else’s space.

Kyle stowed his normal complaints, shutting the door gently behind him and hoping his foreboding silence would get his message across.

Butters just swung his legs absently from the bed, taking a large bite from an apple and humming softly.

Kyle had a brief premonition that this was how he was going to die. Maybe not today, but someday he’d come home and there Butters would be, off his freaking rocker and amusing himself with serial murder.

It sounded about right.

“Leopold.”

Butters smiled and his teeth were on display, “Kyle.”

“Is there a reason you’re in my room?”

Butters took another bite, chewing thoroughly before he answered, “I thought you might be hungry.”

His stomach tossed. Kyle paid it no mind.

“So?” He didn’t think he’d like the direction this was going.

Butters giggled and reached into his basket.

A red fruit was tossed in his direction. Kyle caught it effortlessly and sent Butters a flat look. “...This isn’t going to help.”

“It’s better than nothing.” Butters said, surprisingly somber. “You’re going to need your strength, ya know.”

It made sense. It was logical. It was smart.

Those were all three of the reasons Kyle wasn’t comfortable with the tip coming from Butters crazypold Stotch.

“Thank you,” Kyle said, hesitation lacing the words.

“Thank me when we find Leslie.” Butters legs did a rough, almost violent, swing, “She’s looking for them, I think. She musta figured out they’re more than a casual threat.”

It was a bit difficult to consider the huddling and terrified humans he’d met yesterday a ‘threat’.

Then again, if he wasn’t familiar with Kenny’s resourcefulness, he would have underestimated the human. He  _ had _ underestimated the human.

“We gotta find her before she finds them.” Butters continued, finishing an apple.

Kyle leaned against the door, mind doing loops for answers and consistently returning to the same scene, “I think we should talk to the human who shot at us yesterday. She knows something.”

Butters nodded, “She ought to’ve calmed down by now.”

The acidic question burned in Kyle’s mind, somehow more important than anything else.

“Butters…when did you first meet Leslie?”

A giggle tickled the room, soft in sound and full of resentment.

“Ya know, that’s the one thing I can’t seem to figure out!” Butters giggled again, “One day everyone’s talkin’ about this Leslie girl and I can’t for the life of me put a name to the face! Then all of a sudden she greets me like we’re longtime friends or somethin’! It was just the darndest thing.”

“What… do you mean?” Kyle didn’t like it.

“I mean she’s a stranger. I ain’t ever  _ met _ her, she just showed up.”

It felt as though someone had injected ice into Kyle’s veins.

“That doesn’t make sense. That’s not possible.” Leslie was real. She had to be real. How real could she be if she was imagined? If he didn’t know her?

He  _ knew _ her. He  _ knew _ she’d clung to them and begged for help, he  _ knew _ she’d laughed with him while they were young,  _ he knew _ \--

The spiders made their presence known with their countless little feet, nonsensical ideas reentering his mind and filling him with dread.

“See, that’s what everyone kept tellin’ me.” Butters flicked dust off his knee absently, the sound snapping through the room, “Except Dougie. He always trusted me, even when no one else did.”

Uneasy wrinkles stiffened Kyle’s face as he wracked his brain, “Who’s Dougie?”

If the laugh from before tickled the room, this one stabbed it.

“Golly, the very next day that’s what everyone asked when I was lookin’ for him. Awful strange. Just  _ awfully _ strange.”

Butters’ fists were white with pressure and Kyle had never quite felt more terrified of Butters.

And the tension snapped back, like a rubberband, Butters’ normal happy-go-lucky smile replacing the dark resentful one, “So I stopped askin’ about it! Figured it was jus’ a bit too strange for me. But I oughta keep a close eye on this Leslie, is what I thought.”

Kyle nodded, moving silently out of the way as Butters made to depart the room.

“You’re right, Kyle. We should see that nice girl with the arrows tomorrow if we can’t find Leslie.”

\---

He didn’t have to find her. She found him.

The delicate grip on his arm was unnerving.

It wasn’t his imagination. It was definitely getting harder to focus.

The apples supplied by Butters only offered a temporary reprieve and he couldn’t help but find it upsetting that most of the reprieve came from the sensation of biting down into it.

His stomach wasn’t happy with the situation either. He wasn’t  _ starving _ but he definitely wasn’t getting the appropriate amounts of nutrients he needed.

And it was affecting his focus.

Leslie touched his arm softly, smile so serene and sweet he could retch, “Are you alright, Kyle?”

His fist clenched against his volition as the  _ throb _ to fight something hummed beneath his flesh, “Fine.”

She’d come to him first thing when he woke up, Bebe had let her know about his search.

“You seem upset…” Her voice softened, hurt curdling around the edges and overflowing into guilt that bit at his heels, “Did I do something wrong?”

_ “Let her lead the conversation.” Kenny said, “I’m sure she likes to hear herself talk.” _

_ “How do I…?” _

_ “Single syllable answers, my dude.” _

“No.”

Leslie’s hold on his arm tightened, “Are you homesick?”

_ “Keep your answers vague, hard to interpret. Let her fill in the blanks.” _

“Hm.”

Slender fingers reached forward to hold his face. He was brought to stare into her gentle eyes, “Kyle, what’s wrong? You’re never this quiet.”

_ “When in doubt? Flattery. Fucking lay that shit so thick it’s ridiculous.” _

Kyle sought for words of fondness, they curled at the back of his throat and were laced with the rage of betrayal. Kyle pushed forward. “I miss hearing your voice.”

He hated his own sincerity infused with the words. He did. He missed her. And he hated her. It mixed inside of him until he felt like screaming was the only rational recourse. But his dissent was held in and threatened to boil him alive.

She recoiled from the words, perfect smile momentarily broken as confusion shot through her eyes.

“It hasn’t been that long since we last talked.” She chided, removing her hands, “What would you have me talk about?”

_ “Show concern.” _

“How are you?” He picked up her hand into his own, caressing her knuckles, “You’ve been so busy…are you okay?”

Her hand relaxed into his, how he would have begged for this simple gesture and how he resented it now.

Inside his heart screamed questions he wasn’t supposed to ask.

_ Who are you? _ Rang in his ears, begging to be given birth into this silent world.

“I’m… tired.” She leaned her head on his shoulder, and there really was exhaustion in her frame, “It’s just been a lot to deal with.”

“Hm.”

A silence stretched before and behind them. Kyle tried to calm his own internal cries to fill it, physically biting his tongue to force down his words.

When Leslie spoke again, it was small, “I thought it would be easier… we’ve been trying so hard. We need to find the rest of those--those--”

Actual anger flashed through her eyes.

“--it  _ dared _ to  _ take _ me. And it still wanders around  _ taunting _ me.” Her grip on his hand was steel, “As soon as we capture  _ it _ , we can put an end to this.”

There was a terrifying finalty to the way she said it.

She caught herself. Loosened her grip and honeying her voice.

“Then it will be safe here.” She snuggled closer, “We’ll have the moon and safety.”

_ Liar _ .

His bones cried.

_ Liar _ .

His heart slammed.

_ Liar! _

His ears pounded.

“Really?” He said, weakly.

She didn’t mean good for any of them.

She nodded. “Absolutely. I’m sure we can find a way to stabilize the connection between worlds too. It’s absolutely safe.”

Red edging at the corner of his vision with accusations of  _ danger _ and  _ run _ .

He held still, silence coiling around him as his only weapon.

\---

“She's not a wampir.”

Kyle wasn't sure what surprised him more, the proper use of his species name or the insane accusation being lodged.

Wendy, as Kenny had introduced her, had a hand on her hip and unparalleled rage seering in her gaze.

Butters kept his distance from the two humans.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kyle hadn’t honestly meant for his words to come out so defensive but there was no pulling them back.

Wendy’s fists rested on her hips, a woman always ready for an argument and to  _ win _ . Kyle couldn’t help but recognize the posture as one that should not at any point be fucked with.

“It  _ means _ , dipshit, that she is not a wampir. I’ve been trying to figure out what she is for awhile now. I could have it completely worked out if you and your psycho sidekick hadn’t freed her.”

“How do you know?” Kyle snapped back, never one to back up from a fight either.

“Let me ask you… have you seen her eat?”

Kyle opened his mouth, cries of  _ of course _ and  _ obviously _ dying on his tongue.

He’d never once seen Leslie ‘eat’.

“That’s…” he began, nerves tickling his spine and eyes darting to where Kenny stood listening. No answers there.

“What about her fangs? Have you seen them?”

Her face was veiled most days. Kyle shook his head, the horrifying implication building inside and threatening to boil over.

“Last question, nimrod. Can warmir’s do what she does?”

“What do you mean?” Kyle felt the words weigh inside his mouth, leaden and terrifying.

Wendy rolled her eyes and jutted out a hip, the vision of confidence and exasperation, “She has you wrapped around her finger, right? That’s what Kenny said.” She gestured towards the mostly silent boy with a thumb, “You and the other wampirs, so far as we know. Is that something other wampirs can do?”

The spidery dread crawling up his legs stopped to bite him in the stomach, “No…” How had he missed something like that? “Not to my knowledge.”

He looked to Butters for confirmation, just in case his insane companion knew something he had missed.

“Yeah. I didn’t think so.” Wendy said. “If you guys could put people in a thrall you wouldn’t be having so much trouble catching us. You’d just say stop and we’d stop.”

The logic worked its way into Kyle’s brain, settling like a terror-ridden nightmare and making itself comfortable. He did what came most naturally to him and viewed it with suspicion, looking towards Wendy with questions. “How did you work this out? You would have had to have been observing her from the start.”

At least he hoped. The idea that it was so obvious a complete stranger could have picked out the information pooled at his feet.

Wendy averted her gaze for the first time since this meeting had begun, shifting in a way that caused Kenny to become alert. Pulse rising audibly and moving in ways that revealed his unmarred flesh.

“I… had reason to watch her.”

Kyle crossed his arms, letting his gaze press the question.

When none was forthcoming, Kenny touched her arm. “Why?”

Tension fled her shoulders as shame colored her face.

“I saw her. She was the one who ripped the hole between dimensions.”

It was short. Snippy. Not as informative as it should be.

Kyle narrowed his eyes, “That’s some pretty fucking important information to omit. We’ve been trying to--” Kyle took a steep breath, the building anger making him dizzy in the wake of his new non-existent diet, “What aren’t you saying?”

Wendy’s fists looked like they would gladly punch away the questions but she restrained them.

“I saw…” her voice grew quiet, resentful, painful, “She was talking to someone. Before this happened. I knew about it but I thought--I didn’t know  _ this _ \--and she killed him.” She clipped the last part with resentment, emotion cracking her tone, “And I didn’t do anything. I just….watched.”

Kenny’s hand rested more solidly on her shoulder and she turned to look at the question in his eyes before turning away shamefully. His heartbeat was loud in Kyle’s ears.

“Who?” he said, somehow cruel enough to press her for more.

Kyle couldn’t help but sympathize with the self-hatred in her face. It was what he woke up to nowadays.

“Jimmy.” her voice was lost, pained, and barely withholding emotion, “She killed Jimmy--sacrificed him I think--to open the stupid fucking portal and--”

Broken. Something was broken.

“I just  _ watched _ .”

Kenny pulled her into a half hug but she jerked away.

“Don’t--!” She clenched her fists, facts she never wanted to admit to spilled to the world. She took a shaky breath and steeled her voice for hard logical fact. “The point is, the way she did it--I don’t know what she is, but it’s nothing like what you wampir’s do. She’s a monster, just not your breed.”

Kyle nodded, resentfully accepting that the more he thought about it, the more strange sense it made.

“Well,  _ golly _ ,” Butters said, voice just a grating cheer, “What is she then?”

_ And how did she rip open the divide between worlds _ ?

Kyle bit his tongue on the question. If it required a  _ sacrifice _ to open that meant…

He drew a blank. He could speculate a million different things it might mean but in truth, he had no experience with such things outside of being led through the hole like a toy soldier on her puppet strings.

Wendy seemed to have gathered herself more fully, he could smell the embarrassment but he wouldn’t comment. “Jimmy had a book. I wasn’t able to read it, she took it with her, but I think that’s how she was able to connect with him.”

Kyle’s stomach made a pointed complaint to management at the mere thought.

Retrieving a book meant returning to base. Spending more time on ridiculous tactics to gain Leslie’s trust.  _ Time _ .

Time that was starting to look cruel to his body.

He’d never experienced hunger, not really, not before his current straits. The knowledge that food was available but he  _ couldn’t _ was a torture in itself.

The dizzy inability to focus was what bothered him the most though. He  _ needed _ to be able to focus. To be sharp, gather the facts, and find a solution.

Who else  _ could _ ?

But his focus would drift from the conversation to the sound of blood pumping beneath flesh at the flip of a dime.

Dizzy and frustrated.

Wendy’s words washed over his head but he caught the general meaning of the current plan. Find the book, figure out what Leslie did, undo it, and maybe definitely kill Leslie because Wendy wants it and anyone in her way is going to blah blah blah.

“Are you okay?” The voice was close, muffled, Kyle realized with a jolt that Kenny had moved from his position next to Leslie to one beside him.

The action didn’t draw any attention. Wendy seemed to have noticed his inattention and was currently addressing Butters who took in the information with smiles and his brand of commentary.

Kyle nodded, stilted and trying not to look down to where the crook of Kenny’s neck offered an uncomfortable thought, “I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine, dude.” Why was Kenny so goddamn observant?

“Then I’m not fine,” he snapped, the strength behind his words encouraging another mild dizzy spell.

Kenny’s hands moved upwards and held his chin directing him to look at his face.

“Huh…” Kenny spoke, eyes a mystery, “You really haven't been eating.”

“No shit. Food’s somehow less appetizing when it says don't eat me.” Kyle tried to avert his eyes but it wasn’t a possibility. Not even when Kenny’s hands fell away from his face.

How could he look away?

Was it the thick liquid beneath pale skin resounding his ears or the perfect shade of blue that imprisoned his sight? He didn’t know.

Kenny's forehead fell onto his shoulder and he tried not to notice his internal flutter from the touch.

“Huh…” Kenny repeated.

“What? Is that wrong?” Kyle couldn’t lose his defensive anger now, trying to bring his attention away from the comfortable warmth and back towards the surely disastrous combo of Wendy and Butters.

They seemed oddly companionable despite the antagonistic way they eyed one another. The topic was circling around whether or not it was better to kill Leslie just to see what would happen, kidnap her again for information, or wait until they’d gathered more information.

Kenny’s voice destroyed any chance he really had to fully focus on the debate.

“Nah, it's just… I dunno, I kinda had you pegged as the biggest asshole I've ever had the displeasure of meeting. But here you are, almost a decent bastard.” He could hear the smile in Kenny’s voice. It did something uncomfortable to his toes.

“...I'm not really  _ sure  _ that counted as a compliment.” Kyle pointed out.

“It's not an insult at least.” Kenny bumped his head again and adjusted his head to look up at Kyle, face aglow with fondness. “Baby steps.”

Kyle swallowed his emotion but his voice was still thicker than he would care for, “Fair enough.”

\---

He wasn't expecting his vision to begin blurring at the edges.

It was harder and harder to focus on simple concepts.

Such as the alarm he  _ should _ feel seeing Kenny seated on his bed.

He blinked and the illusion melted into Butters, who was looking at him with a genuine concern that only he could really manage.

“Golly, Kyle, you don’t look so good. Are you eating your apples?”

He was.

He frowned, “I thought I told you to stop coming into my room.”

Butters, in typical Butters fashion, completely disregarded the complaint, “Kyle, I’m going to get the book tonight.”

“I thought we agreed I would get Leslie to show it to me.” Kyle furrowed his brows in concentration, trying to remember the details from the conversation, surely he wouldn’t have missed something so big even while dazed?

How long had it been since he’d eaten anything but apples? Two, three days? More?

“We both know you don’t have that kind of time, Kyle.”

The accusation revived anger within him and he ignored how lightheaded raising his voice made him, “How are you so okay, then? Have you been snacking on the side.”

“We’re different, Kyle.”

The repeated use of his name brought him pause. It wasn’t normal. He tried to calm down. He couldn’t.

“How is that?!” he advanced, hating the poise  _ Crazypold _ had over him, “We’re the same damn type of  _ monster _ , aren’t we?!”

“Well, golly, calling us monsters is awfully strong.” Butters chastised. “But I don’t think you’ve never  _ been _ hungry before.”

“ _ And you have _ ?!” Kyle was nearly yelling.

“...Yes.”

It was the way Butters voice went from it’s normal chirp to so impossibly small that finally cut through Kyle’s frustration.

The inquisitive words died on his tongue when Butters looked up from his folded hands. There was no describing the emotion in his eyes.

And then he spoke.

“Gosh, it’s such a long time ago now, it feels awful silly to bring it up.” He fiddled with his fingers, the corners of his voice telling a story on their own, “See, when they were alive and healthy and all, my parents used ta’... well, ya know how my  _ Father _ ...” There was something distinctly  _ wrong _ about how Butters said the word, “Well, he was awfully strict. And sometimes, golly, I’m just awfully clumsy.”

Kyle felt like his voice had dried up inside. Every insult about Butters’ insanity threatening to come up painfully.

“And sometimes I didn’t eat. For a long time. So long that sometimes that eating would make my stomach upset.” He held up an apple, “That’s why I like these, ya know, they help settle my tummy.”

The Stotch family tragedy had been under such strange and suspicious circumstances. Kyle remembered there were  _ things _ found in their home that no one had answers for.

All parties who should know anything were dead, after all.

Butters bit into the apple, taking his time to chew and swallow.

“After my parents were gone, well, I found out what it was like to eat normally and lemme tell you. It was just so goshdarn  _ weird _ . I’d get grouchy if I missed even  _ one _ meal.”

“You seem pretty okay now…” Kyle said, trying not to think too hard.

He felt like he’d find answers even with his muddied brain.

“Golly, that’s because it’s familiar to me! It’s not pleasant or nothin’, but my body knows I’ve lived through worse so it’s not really kickin’ up a fuss yet.” Butters nibbled another bit of apple, “Your body doesn’t know. Your body thinks you're trying to kill it so it’s kickin’ up all sorts of alarms desperately tryin’ to get your attention.”

It made a strange sort of sense, despite the source. Kyle nodded, unwilling to argue further and learn more.

How much of Butters’ insanity was inspired by the  _ tragedy _ and how much had developed over years and years of deprivation?

“Good!” Butters chirped, standing and attempting to sweep out of the room, Kyle stood in his way.

“Where you going?”

“To do what I said I’d do, silly!” Butters patted his shoulder in the perfect manner to weave around him, escaping before any further argument could be lodged.

Kyle slumped to his bed.

This wouldn’t end well.

There wasn’t a way to contact Kenny and let him know the change of plans. Despite an attempt with radios, they didn’t carry over the distance.

He laid back and tried to summon calm in the anxiety.

A hand on his hip guiding him in a whirlwind of movement in a game to find the others feet.

A carefree smile lighting up a now familiar face.

A river of red cascading from a lifeless body.

Kyle’s hands collided with his face as he clutched for sanity.

“Stop.”

Closing his eyes only offered more visions behind his eyelids.

A mixture of calm and unease, an anxiety worse than anything Butters could inspire, and the knowledge that it was limited.

So limited.

\--

The walk out of town was a surprisingly comfortable one.

The chill of the evening was a welcome reprieve from his burning pulse.

Butters hadn’t relinquished his prize or explained how he’d come into possession of it. He just flipped through the pages absently as they walked.

Kyle debated how foolish he would look craning over his shoulders to read the contents. The book which could potentially possess all the answers they needed and Butters was treating it as casually as he did all things.

All the same he couldn’t bring himself to voice his complaints. The words from so many hours ago still resounding in his mind.

They had agreed to meet with the humans again by the lake where the tear was located. Kyle wondered how many would be there. Last time was just Wendy and Kenny. Just Kenny? Just Wendy? More of the scared huddling forms from the human hideaway?

Kenny had to be there though, right? It wouldn’t make sense if he wasn’t.

“What’s got you so nervous?” Butters asked without looking up from his task.

The lies of denial died on Kyle’s tongue.

“I don’t know.” Kyle said.

That was as close to honesty as he could get. His world swirled and zeroed in on one person in a strangely obsessive way and he couldn’t for life of him figure out  _ why _ .

“Will you be okay around them?” Butters asked.

The unspoken implication that he might  _ lose control _ rankled Kyle’s nerves and he shot a glare to his careless companion.

“Yes. I’ll be fine.”

Silence filled the walk as the water came into view and Kyle searched for the only patch of life among the cold he wanted to see in the dim moonlight.

“That’s good. Things are going to get  _ a bit _ exciting.” Butters hummed.

Kyle’s steps stuttered and he turned with horror to look at Butters fully.

“What does that mean?” There was no question to his tone because somehow he  _ knew _ .

Butters snapped the book shut and looked towards Kyle with an alarming innocence, “The best things arise from chaos.”

“Yo! Dracula’s sidekicks! Took you long enough!”

Kenny’s voice was numb in Kyle’s ears.

So slow he thought about how easily they’d been able to sneak away, hadn’t run into anyone, hadn’t needed to give a single excuse, hadn’t needed to cover their tracks.

So slow his hearing zeroed in on four human heartbeats.

So slow he tore his stare from Butters and towards the gaggle of humans seated on what looked like a bench beside the water.

Had they lost? Already?

“Run.” His voice was low, hoarse, and choked in his own throat.

Kenny couldn’t have heard him from that distance but he still stood between his selected humans and the world in a defensive stance.

Maybe he’d read it in Kyle’s face.

“Well, this is just hurtful.” Leslie’s finger traced his jaw as she materialized nearby, “I’ve been so  _ good _ to you, Kyle.”

How could she materialize? What was she capable of? What  _ was _ she?

“Thank you, Leopold.” She smiled graciously at him, “I knew I could count on you.”

Kenny, Wendy, Stan, and Nelly. They had names. They were standing there awaiting the worst.

They had families and emotions and language and they were standing there awaiting  _ what. _

Kyle noticed too late he wasn’t breathing and choked on his own lost breath.

“Why so surprised, Kyle?” She purred, “You look as though you thought you could sneak out from under me.”

There was dissent with the humans, just out of hearing distance. Or perhaps he couldn’t quite hear anything over the thready panic of his own heart.

Butters tossed the book to the side, the sound it made throbbed inside Kyle’s skull.

“Awfully boring, ya know? And doesn’t really provide any of the information you were hoping for.”

Butters couldn’t be working with Leslie. It didn’t make any sense. He  _ hated _ Leslie.

Did he?

Kyle didn’t know. Not for sure. Could anything Butters had told him be trusted? Was he starved as a child or was Kyle the only one  _ truly _ on a hunger strike?

Was Dougie real?

“Don’t hurt them,” Kyle said.

Leslie invaded his vision, lifting her veil to reveal aquamarine eyes full of malice and...nothing.

Her eyes were an expanse of  _ nothing _ .

Her fingers danced across his chest and he realized belatedly that he felt completely paralyzed. “That’s a lot to ask.”

“Please.” His words felt thick.

“It’s amazing you can talk, looking straight at me,” she hummed softly as she wrapped her arms around his middle. Pulling him into her embrace.

Was that what happened to Butters? Was he just under some kind of thrall?

_ Butters _ .

Kyle’s eyes snapped away and he tried to jolt forward, but Leslie’s grip was steel.

Butters was advancing on the humans, humming his little tune.

“ _ Loo loo loo _ .”

Wendy raised a crossbow and Kenny was whispering something to Stan, who nodded hurriedly.

“ _ I’ve got some apples _ .”

Nelly held up a knife that would do little damage in the circumstances.

“ _ Loo loo loo _ .”

Kenny positioned himself to be the distraction. To be the bait. To be  _ dead _ .

“ _ You’ve got some too _ .”

Kyle tried to find the strength to struggle, his body dissolved into Leslie’s grip.

_ “Loo loo loo _ .”

Butters was already too close. They wouldn’t escape at this rate.

“ _ Let’s get together. _ ”

In an instant, Wendy’s crossbow was thrown out of her grip and she was pushed backwards, knocking Stan down. In one easy motion he grabbed Nelly and pulled her away, face disappearing around her neck.

“ _ I know what we can loo loo loo _ .”

Time stood still as Kyle could swear he could already smell the blood and corpses wafting his way. A vision of what was to come. A world of the  _ dead _ .

And then Butters collapsed, holding his crotch.

Kyle felt the surprise course through Leslie as well.

Nelly spat, “I don’t care if you’re a vampire, I’m gonna kick your ass.”

The air shifted and Kyle felt the constricting paralysis fade as Leslie hyper-focused on the scene.

He darted out of her grip, reeling at the dizziness created but determined to stay out of her control.

The thought that he shouldn’t fight her tickled his mind. She was good and perfect and everything he’d ever wanted.

“Kyle, you wanna give us a fucking hand?!”

He looked towards where Kenny and the others were attempting to subdue Butters and being surprisingly successful.

Perhaps they came well prepared?

Butters backed away, burnt and limping, to only a hair's breadth away from Leslie.

“What was  _ that _ ?” She hissed at him.

“Golly, they’re awfully tough.”

Kyle used their spat as time to move closer to the humans, who knew what other reinforcements Leslie might have brought.

How had Nelly survived? Butters should have known about the burning neckbands.

“Is everyone okay?” Kyle called behind him, not daring to look away from Leslie and Butters.

Things weren’t adding up in his brain.

“Somehow.” Kenny was coming up behind him, “Stan should be able to get them out of here.”

“What about you?” Kyle asked. Leslie had brought her attention back to them, a calculating tic in her posture letting the world know she was thinking about just what she intended to do about them.

“Well, it doesn’t really matter if I stay or not,” Kenny said.

“Bullshit. Don’t let her touch you.” Fear coursed through him, “We don’t even know what she is. Just get out of here.”

“And leave you to the she-bitch? Nah, I’m a motherfucking gentleman.”

Leslie advanced. Butters shortly behind her with an absent smile.

Well, if all pretense was gone anyway…

“What  _ are _ you?” He knew his words reached her because of the upwards arch of her mouth. The sway of her hips.

“That’s a rude question to ask,” she said, laughter edging into her voice. “You make it sound like I’m some sort of monster!”

“Ya sorta are.” Kenny supplied and bumped into him, just enough that a comforting warmth radiated towards Kyle’s rattled nerves. “I mean, all things considered.”

“What things?” Her voice was silky smooth but her eyes were locked on Kenny as if seeing him for the first time.

“You killed poor Jimmy out here, right? Eyewitnesses say you unhinged your jaw and bit off his head.”

“That’s a bit of an exaggeration.”

“Would it be an exaggeration to call you a snake?”

Her smile rose into something more genuine. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

She was too close now. Stopping only a few yards away with Butters at her side.

Kyle let Kenny do the talking as he tried to think of a feasible way they could live through this. If it was  _ just _ Butters or Leslie, they might have stood a chance.

Though Butters was formidable. It was still hard to believe--

“Ya know what I can’t quite figure out? Why kill Jimmy? Why not just keep him as a pet? He was a real funny dude.”

“Sacrifices need to be made,” she said, not an emotion in her empty eyes. “He served a purpose.”

“What purpose could that possibly be?”

Butters had an apple in his left hand. Tossed it to his right hand and back again. Kyle found himself mesmerized by the movement.

Butters was the only one who never seemed to have fallen under Leslie’s spell. That was strange. Why would Butters alone be an exception? Were they just working together from the beginning?

“Opening the door. Every door has a toll, one to open, one to close. I needed this one open.” Leslie’s smile was deadly, “I needed to create space.”

“For the vampires? Cute.” Kenny took a step in front of him, was it protective? “You got attached to your pets?”

Again the apple danced before his eyes.

Kyle hadn’t felt the need to obey Leslie in what felt like a short eternity. Was it his brain over-riding the effects of her spell? Was it his hunger taking away the mental functions he’d need to be controlled?

“These?” Leslie scoffed as she gestured towards Butters and Kyle in a broad gesture. “Tools. A means to an end.”

And she would end them, Kyle realized.

The apple bounced again and this time Kyle could swear he saw Butters wink.

“Golly.”

Leslie looked up from her locked conversation with Kenny, seeing the world around her as though it had momentarily been taken away from her.

“That’s an awful thing to say.”

She smiled, that perfect smile, “Leopold, you know you’re an exception.”

Honey covered lies.

“Cute.” Kenny repeated.

A shot rang out and Leslie collapsed with an arrow in her leg. Kyle couldn’t trace where it came from but that was probably the point of the trees.

She didn’t cry or scream, just held the leg with a perfect whimper.

Butters took a step away from her, pocketing his fruit, “Aw hamburgers, are you alright, Leslie?”

“I--” she stopped, looking up at Butters with shocked betrayal morphing into a cold anger, “You.”

“What about me?” Butters had created yet more distance, arms raised to let Wendy know.

“You conniving backstabbing--” he’d never heard such a dark hiss from Leslie.

“I never backstabbed no one.” Butters interjected, looking almost hurt, “You went and assumed what you’d like.”

“How are you,  _ you shouldn’t be able to resist me _ .”

Butters clenched a fist, “You shouldn’t have been able to take poor Dougie.”

She glared up at him, Kenny was using her distraction to advance but Kyle gripped his hand while shaking his head.

“Who’s  _ Dougie _ .”

Butters reared forth, speedy and baring his fangs, grabbing Leslie by the neck and pulling her well above the ground.

“ _ Exactly _ !” he cried, raw and agonized.

As quickly as the advantage had been gained, it fell before Kyle’s eyes.

Butters released her, falling to the ground and gripping his throat. Leslie stood, only a slight limp.

Another arrow shot from the trees but she  _ caught _ it, eyes lighting on one tree in particular before bouncing back to Kenny and Kyle.

Kenny flew back and it took him a moment to realize she’d lifted and thrown him with a single hand.

Were those scales marring her flesh?

“I wanted to do this the easy way.”

Her voice was cold. Completely devoid of the emotions that make up a person.

She closed the distance and held the front of Kyle’s shirt, no trace of her smiling perfection but only a cruel laugh.

“I wanted to make room. Remove all you primitive worms in advance.”

She threw him to the ground, he struggled to stand but her foot slammed down on his skull, sending him back down.

“It would have been painless for you that way.”

She ground her heel into his temple. Kyle tried to summon strength but it seemed impossible. He was hungry, cold, dizzy, and weak. Something sharp slid against his cheek, drawing blood and making coherent thought nearly impossible.

“Who knows? Maybe I  _ could _ have kept a few of the more entertaining ones as pets.” She kicked him for emphasis and it stole what breath he had but not his heart.

Kenny.

He heard that familiar heartbeat just before she whirled away from him. His head only had a moment to throb before the thick scent of blood filled the air.

_ No _ .

He couldn’t let her touch Kenny.

He staggered to his feet desperately, in time to see Kenny clutching his hip and gritting his teeth through the blood.

She extracted her elongated fingernail, twisting it on the way out and smiling through Kenny’s cry.

Voices. He could hear voices.

They were talking but it went over his head.

She  _ couldn’t _ touch Kenny. It was  _ important _ that she didn’t.

He lurched forth, growling out the rest of his strength as he shoved her away and positioned himself between them.

She was fast but he could take her, he just needed to keep up. He just needed to stay a step ahead. He could--

His vision swam.

This was the wrong time. It was always the wrong time.

Leslie's laugh echoed in his brain, rattling around and dulling his senses.

The molasses feel of paralyzation swept over him and he couldn’t move, couldn’t fight, he was so  _ tired _ , his mind tired of fighting and his body surrendering to another’s mercy.

His wrist spasmed and he barely blocked a swipe for his throat. His shoes sank into the mud of the damp earth. It was making it harder to avoid her when he couldn’t even seem to get a goddamn foothold.

The world span.

He couldn’t see her, not like this.

A blow sent him backwards, knocking into a tree at the edge of the lake. A yard to the side and he’s splash into the water, probably to sink.

“You can’t keep up with me, Kyle.” why was her silken voice so grating to every fiber of his being. He flung himself away from the tree in time to avoid her wrath, tripping into a puddle.

He tried to catch his breath.

Gasp, grasp,  _ see _ , breathe,  _ breathe- _

_ He was going to die. _

He brought himself to his feet shakily, watching her approach, her taunting words swimming away from his ability to process.

The thought filled every corner of his depleted senses. He couldn’t keep up, he couldn’t get his mind together, he couldn’t fight, and she would kill him.

Then everyone else would die with him.

Kyle leaned against a tree for balance, to center himself, he could hear her, a distance away, prattling on and on and on.

He couldn’t see her. He couldn’t see anything.

He could only see red.

And then there was blue.

Kyle reset his eyes from darkness to double-check what he saw.

Kenny's lips moved but he couldn't hear his words either.

Impossibly blue eyes lit the world with determination. His passion. An unstoppable force of ferocity.

Kenny repeated himself, his voice cutting through Kyle’s lost mind.

“Bite me.”

He tried to shake his head but it was trapped in Kenny’s palms. Firm and demanding.

Unyielding.

“Win.” A command. Infuriating. No one should demand from him. He should be the one making demands and  _ taking _ .

His eyes wavered to the crook of Kenny’s neck and there was Leslie's laugh.

“It won't make a difference.” Her voice was so strangely cold, none of her honey, “You'll both die. Accept it. You've lost.”

His teeth were throbbing. He lost himself in the blue.

“I trust you.” It was a strangely affectionate. The words fired an emotion inside him that couldn’t be named.

He lunged forward and  _ took _ . Everything focused on a moment in time. Pulling Kenny entirely to him and putting his full weight against the tree.

Kenny's strong grip. Kenny's taste. Kenny's grunt of pain. Kenny's squirm. Kenny's warmth.

_ Kenny _ .

He pulled back and locked onto the red. Spilling away, what a waste, he wanted more, so good. What was he doing that mattered so much when he could be having more.

He could get lost in it. The warmth against him shallowly breathing and that wonderful  _ red _ .

Honey curled to his ears from where Leslie lazed, seemingly unconcerned.

“Delicious, isn't it?”

It was. What was he so upset over? Why was his body aching? He didn't need to keep fighting.

He was fighting?

Why was he fighting?

“Don't worry, Kyle.” The voice was so calming, so gentle, so  _ perfect _ , coming closer. “It's okay.”

Honey, perfect, and slimy as a snake.

“Oi.”

Her hold and her smile were really something perfect.

“Numbnuts.”

A lovely river of red rolling down a pale expanse. What more could he want?

“Yo, _ monster _ .”

Kyle blinked.

“Back to the world of the living or what? I know you like your kinky fantasies but we got shit to do.” Kenny grunted.

And then there was clarity. He felt the weight of his exhaustion, the thick air around him, the mud beneath his boots and the bark against his back.

But most importantly he could the impertinent smirk and impossible blue held against him.

He liked blue more than red.

“Kenny?”

He cocked his head to the side with the hint of a smirk, “Hello again, kink-master. Ready to refocus on the task at hand?”

“I'm not a kink-master… Why do you always make things weird?” Kyle could still taste Kenny on his tongue, nausea washed over him even as he adjusted to his surroundings, waking up from a nightmare.

“Because you're a weirdo.” Kenny had a signature grin, hand on his neck in a vain attempt to keep his blood inside.

The world sharpened.

“Pathetic.” Leslie's voice cut through.

She looked strangely small. Desolate and alone. Butters was coming to his feet shakily. Wendy was somewhere in the trees and no doubt ready to begin anew.

And Kenny bounced hope around in the palm of his hand as he cocked his head to one side, too close to Leslie for comfort.

How was it he looked so big in this moment?

The impossibility of success resting on his shoulders as he stared death in the eyes. Still daring to look strong.

Still daring to look undaunted.

“Couldn’t agree more.” Kenny replied to her, catching her undivided attention.

“ _ You _ .” It really did sound like she was  _ actually _ hissing. Kyle felt his world tip onto its side even as he stood upright.

“Yeah, me. What about it, numbnuts?” Kenny placed a hand on one hip, holding nothing on Wendy’s intimidation but formidable in his nonchalance.

Leslie’s face had dissolved into a snarl, empty eyes alight with venom. “It would have been  _ fine _ without you--you ruined  _ everything _ .”

“Nah.” Kenny grinned, “You’re just not as good as you think you are.”

She surged forth, springing from her position with such speed and ferocity, but Kyle was ready.

His vision had readjusted and he could  _ see _ . He could hear his surroundings, the rustle of trees, the crunch of leaves, the sound of heavy breathing and terrified hearts. It felt like an eternity since he’d last been able to listen with such clarity.

He could  _ see _ it now. Her nails looked like poison. Acidic colors dripping from the edges of nails that were longer than he’d ever remembered them being. Kyle moved in the way of the poison as Kenny ducked away from it.

He had to half spin on his heel to it. Kenny’s hand caught his balance before it tipped backwards.

She grunted, a sound he’d never heard from her before, strain cracking perfection as she tried anew, this time catching Kenny in the side with a slice of her nail. Kyle pulled Kenny’s hood, jolting him backwards, before she could imbed it deep.

Kenny shot him a smile before adjusting his stance, his usual bat replaced with a branch he was able to grab.

He swung at her head, missing but Kyle used the distraction to sweep out her legs.

Huh.

It was like they were dancing all over again.

She hissed as she stood and rearranged her attention towards Kyle, rearing her hand for a precise slash at his throat.

It was too close. He felt the wind grazing the flesh in one quick motion, sending him stumbling backwards.

The nails would have to be dealt with, he wouldn’t be able to keep it up. She was fast and relentless, another one followed the first.

He dodged in time, ducking just beneath her assault, and punched her solidly in her stomach. He withdrew with enough time to avoid her rebound.

Leslie lurched forth with the pain of being gut-punched and suddenly his upbringing brought him pause, she was still a girl? His mother had  _ words _ about behavior such as this. He shouldn’t--

She rallied, mouth unhinging quickly. The  _ popping _ sound as it separated met with the stretch of flesh as it  _ dropped _ just lower than a jaw should. The horrifying sight left him momentarily immobile, staring at the stretched flesh ripping and  _ tearing _ under the pressure. He only barely ducked to the left before it snapped shut where his head was. He watched as her jaw readjusted, heart throbbing against his ribs.

“What  _ are you _ ?!” Kyle couldn’t contain the words and her upturned lips nearly made him retch.

She sprayed forth again, but this time from below in what could only be considered a  _ slither _ before her nails were shooting upwards.

Kyle did the first thing his instincts demanded and stomped down, breaking two of the nails in half with the motion.

Leslie cry of pain  _ echoed _ in his skull. He had no time, she was resuming her assault.

He used her own momentum to send her flying but she twisted her neck and coiled around him.

“ _ We are more than any of you mortals _ ,” she whispered softly to him, jaw unhinging, saliva oozing through the ripping flesh in order to take in his head--

An arrow pierced her shoulder and she cried out in pain, mucus spraying with the sound. He could  _ hear _ her face rip under the intensity of her scream. But she didn’t pull away until blood was splashed into her eyes, temporarily blinding her.

Kyle distanced himself from her reach. Kenny was at his side in an instant, blood still pooling from his tantalizing neck and now, from his fingers as well. Kyle sighed, “What the fuck, Kenny.”

Kenny shook his own blood away from his hands with a shrug, “I was just bleeding everywhere, I figured I might as well use it.”

“You’re gross, you know that?” Kyle didn’t take his eyes away from her.

Leslie was uncoiling from the ground, and striking forward, another arrow burying in her back as she went but it didn’t stop her.

“Ya know you love it.” Kenny winked, pushing himself to the side and sending a kick to Leslie’s skull.

She fell again. Still for a moment longer than the last few.

Butters stumbled forward, his cheek was bleeding and oozing a green substance. Poison? Her nails?

He couldn’t tell. His eyes were locked on the scene. Butters descended, snapping one of her arms nearly in half.

“What did you do to Dougie?” his voice broke despite the intensity of his demand, a sob at the tip of his tongue.

She smiled. It was that same perfect one that only brought him nausea now.

“He was delicious.”

Butters screamed an animalistic sound that caused Kyle to take a step back, flinching as he nearly tore off her other arm and wrapped his hands around her neck.

“ _ Why _ ?”

It was such a desperate plea. It wasn’t addressed to Leslie.

She was there. She was choking. She was struggling and screaming. Butters Leopold Stotch wasn’t talking to her. She wasn’t real to him.

She was dying but he was begging that horrible daunting question to  _ everything _ .

Kyle had heard that  _ why _ in his own heart before.

Why was the world the way it was?

Why did it have to be like this?

Why couldn’t he have the one thing he wanted?

Begging to know why the world toyed with him in such merciless ways.

Hesitantly, Kyle stepped forward, “Stop.”

He didn’t want to make him stop.

Butters didn’t look away from his task, anguish painting his face, “Why should I?”

“We need her to close the portal.”

“Bullshit. We just need a sacrifice. She more or less admitted to that.” Butters swearing was more startling than most things somehow.

“You know it’s probably more complicated than that.”

Butters knuckles were white from concentration.

Leslie was choking on what could be her last breath.

“Leopold…” Kyle couldn’t find the words.

Leslie had stopped struggling awhile ago. Loss of breath edging away consciousness.

Butters arms fell to his sides, heart-wrenching sobs wracking his frame over the unmoving frame of a monster.

\--

Goodbye.

There wasn’t any explaining it to the others. There were apple slices and holding  _ the creature _ captive while nerves were settled and the situation somehow explained.

Goodbyes suck.

They could have the moon back and everything would return to normal. Despite everything that was all anyone had ever wanted.

Goodbyes feel impossible.

It probably helped matters that the walking happy-meals were now talking and the more time Leslie was restrained, the more everything started to make some sense. The humans kept hold of Leslie, they seemed more resistant to her sirens song so it was the only logical move.

Bebe hadn’t taken to it well. Kyle wasn’t sure any of them were but the look on her face mirrored so many of his own emotions that he couldn’t look at her. She was the first to leave.

Kyle’s thoughts pooled around one thing though and he couldn’t focus on much else.

Kenny wasn’t telling him something.

They’d gathered what they needed in order to close the portal for good and, ideally, restore balance to both worlds. He’d convinced the majority they needed to return home. It was a win. They’d won.

Kenny wasn’t telling him something and it ate at him because goodbye was impossible enough as is. There wasn’t time, though. His kind were growing hungry and Kyle couldn’t keep an eye on every single one of them, even with Butters’ help.

It was the final night of the final hour and all the preparations had been made. Leslie wasn’t in sight but Kyle felt as though she had to be close.

Goodbyes should be forbidden.

Groups of humans and wampir’s stood to the side, barely contained discomfort scarring the air and weighing it down with an impossible tension. One by one wampir’s returned through the divide, one by one the time came closer for the connection to be closed off completely.

The few that remained weren’t pleased but Butters was wearing them down..

They were far enough away from that though. Working by a single tree at the edge of the lake, an unnatural burble in reality making it appear to be two trees. The tear to another world, his world,  _ home _ , splitting the tree nearly in half under the pressure of its existence.

Kenny looked up from his work and his face betrayed nothing.

“That should just about do it. All that’s needed is a sacrifice.”

Kyle grimaced, “Leslie?”

He was met with silence and Kenny’s shoulders slumped. He brought up a smile but it didn’t meet his eyes.

“Turns out Leslie didn’t pick at random.” Kenny shifted uneasily, “It requires one person  _ from this world _ .”

Kyle digested this.

Kenny’s unreadable face.

His usual disregard for his own life.

The crackle of disbelief within his fingers that spread through every part and spilled out of his mouth.

“No.”

Kenny smiled, “Ya know, in a different circumstance, I’d call you sweet.”

“What about your family?”

“I come back.”

“What if you  _ don’t _ ?” He’d closed the distance before he could stop himself. Somehow small in his arms despite being such an impossibly big presence.

“Then I don’t.” Kenny’s shoulders shrugged. His barely healed wounds wafted the scent of blood. His body betrayed an anxiety his voice didn’t.

“No.” Kyle couldn’t accept that. He couldn’t accept goodbyes. He couldn’t accept  _ this _ .

“We don’t have a choice.” Kenny’s arms rose and squeezed Kyle’s sides. Maybe it was a hug.

Kyle didn’t feel like it was a hug.

It felt like a goodbye.

“ _ No _ .”

He held him close, breathed him in, maybe the last he'd ever see, touch, feel, smell… Kenny. It was Kenny in his arms and he didn't want to ever let go.

“It’s okay, sweet-cheeks.” Kenny’s arms trembled, “You can lock me up in any sex dungeon you want in the next life.”

He couldn’t do it.

Kyle tore away from the embrace and stormed towards the remaining wampir, not once looking to see Kenny’s expression. He didn’t want to know what was there.

“Get the hell in the damn portal or I’m putting an end to you  _ myself _ .” Kyle knew he wasn’t the most intimidating and it was probably the instability in his voice that sold it, but Mike flinched back from his impudent arguments, turning to his companions and being led in a march towards the exit.

One, two, three, four…

Kenny was adjusting something out of the corner of his eye.

Five, six, seven, eight…

Butters went in with the last batch, waving jovially to the group of humans and actually getting an almost friendly wave in return.

Nine, ten, eleven…

He was officially the last wampir this side of the veil.

Kyle’s fists clenched.

He wasn’t going to look at Kenny. What would be the point. What was the point to any of this. Nothing. A big fat load of  _ nothing _ . So much death on both sides and for  _ what _ ? So much  _ suffering _ and now there was just  _ more _ .

And he  _ wouldn’t _ accept this. He couldn’t. He’d find another way. There  _ had _ to be another way.

“Kyle!”

He turned in time to get an unexpected armful of orange, staggering back and almost to the edge.

Kenny didn’t bother with words. Of course he wouldn’t.

In one easy push, Kenny’s lips were on his own.

The emotion that lit inside him burned. A fire in his heart fed by the impossible, lighting an impossible warmth--

And it was gone. Kenny’s face a smile that didn’t meet his eyes.

“Bye.” A breath against his lips spoken softly, an affection too long left secret.

He was pushed backwards into the portal.

“ _ Kenny! _ ”

Goodbyes hurt.

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't initially gonna do this prompt but it just stuck in my brain and then I felt challenged XD and I am nothing if not weak to the challenges.


End file.
